The Star in the Sky Saga: Book 1
by BlackRoseBooks
Summary: First in The Night Light Chronicles - 9th Doctor/OC (Time Lady - Astra Nyx) - What if the Doctor found someone else in the shop? What is it about her that draws him to want to protect her and why does she feel so familiar? When they end up travelling together, what will they discover? What secrets will be uncovered?
1. Astra

**Disclaimer: I do not own Doctor Who.**

 **Astra**

In a top floor flat in central London a young woman called Astra Nyx awoke to the morning radio as her alarm alerted her to the fact it was time to wake up. Stretching out, she sat up and she released a sigh of satisfaction as the stiffness from a good night's sleep released from her body.

Walking into her kitchen she turned on her coffee maker before leaning against the counter and taking a moment to enjoy the peaceful morning view from her window overlooking the central London skyline. As the coffee machine buzzed gently in the background Astra started to pull out the ingredient for some blueberry muffins from her cupboards and refrigerator. After making the batter for the muffins and distributing it evenly into a tray of muffin cases she puts the tray in the oven to bake before heading into her bathroom for a shower.

Once finished she wrapped her hair and put on her dressing gown, she went to the kitchen, took out the muffins from her oven and then put them on a cooling rack. She finished just as her warning alarm blared from her phone alerting her that it had just turned 7:15 and she had half an hour left to finish getting ready for work. She left the muffins to cool as she went to her bedroom to finish getting ready.

~*0*~

In a different flat a couple of streets away, a slightly younger girl called Rose Tyler jumped up from her bed in her bright pink room, dazed as her loud alarm blared, breaking the silence of the morning with its obnoxious ring. Flopping back down onto her pillows she slammed her hand down on the clock silencing her alarm before she turned it to look at the time.

Cursing under her breath when she saw the clock said 7:30 she threw her duvet off of her and raced to the bathroom to rush through getting ready for the day, moaning to herself about how her mum hadn't tried to wake her up.

~*0*~

Astra pulled on a black and white stripy jumper, a pair of faded blue-grey boot-cut jeans and some brown leather ankle boots. She blow dried her hair into loose curls before adding a hint of mascara and eye-liner to make her eyes stand out and put on a touch of lip balm. She tucked her Claddagh locket under her jumper before nodding to herself, deeming herself ready for the day.

She went to the kitchen and boxed up her muffins placing them in her brown satchel bag before putting it over her shoulder. She grabbed her keys and exited the apartment, locking the door behind her. She walked across the car park and got into her little mini checking all her mirrors she started the engine before setting off to work.

~*0*~

Rose rushed around the flat trying to find an outfit for the day. She grabbed the first thing she could find that smelled clean and put them on. Now wearing a dark pink track suit jacket, a pale pink vest top, baggy jeans and trainers she raced into the kitchen grabbed a piece of toast of the table took a big gulp of her mums tea.

Ignoring the look on her mums face she gave her a kiss on the cheek before running for the door shouting a quick "Bye!" over her shoulder as she slammed the door shut, not hearing her mother answering "See you later" as she rushed down the stairs and out the building.

~*0*~

Astra calmly pulled into the multi-story car park down the road from her work. She grabbed her things, exited the car, making sure to lock it up before she headed down to her work.

She walked down the road and into Henriks department store, as she passed the security guard she paused with a "hello" as she reached into her bag and pulled out her box of muffins, offering the man them to take one. She smiled as the guard seemed to debate over which one he wanted with a look of delight and playful greed on his face.

He took a big bite groaning with exaggerated satisfaction making Astra laugh, as he said with a charming smile "Gorgeous as always, Az".

Her laughter trailed off with a smile as she waved away the compliment, she turned to go toward the offices, where she usually dropped her handbag and things in her locker before she headed to the cash registers and got to work.

~*0*~

Rose jumped on the bus headed to central London, biting her lip as she prayed for the bus to go faster. As the bus pulled up outside the department store she raced off the bus not bothering to acknowledge the people she pushed out of the way as she raced for the doors.

She rushed in, straight past the security guard ignoring the fact he was rolling his eyes at her as she ran in late again. She threw the manager a pathetic look as she apologised, noticing he was looking at her with a raised eye brow before he just sighed and shook his head at the girl.

She dropped off her bag in the office before taking her time making herself a cup of tea. She went to the changing rooms to keep an eye on them for the first couple of hours of her day.

~*0*~

As the morning past, Astra worked the register, answered any telephone calls or internet queries that came in and assisted any customers who couldn't find the items they were looking for. She only paused briefly to go to the office for a quick lunch break.

After finishing her home-made lunch of prawn chorizo spaghetti, she tidied up after herself wiped down the table and put her things away. Once done she headed straight over to the staff organising the window displays in order to offer her assistance in setting them.

~*0*~

Rose having finished her shift in guarding the changing rooms began moving and organising piles of shirts and jeans around in the ladies wear section before being given permission to go for her lunch.

She headed out to meet her boyfriend for a pasty lunch in Trafalgar Square but quickly lost track of time as they played about. She finally realised she was running late again when she heard Big Ben ring out in the background alerting her to the fact it had gone 1 o'clock.

She rushed through the doors, avoiding her boss's stare as she went over to the counter, picked up the sales tags and started to hook them onto the hangers in the sale section.

~*0*~

At about 7:45 the announcement system clicked on and Astra's voice could be heard throughout the store. "This is a customer announcement. The store will be closing in fifteen minutes. Thank you" before she shut down the till and took all the money and paperwork for the day into the office to tally for the day.

Rose and some of the other girls headed for the main doors only for Rose to be stopped by the guard who shook a clear plastic bag containing several lottery tickets and some money in front of Rose, with a grunted "Oi" to get her attention.

Rose reluctantly took the bag with a groan before she turned and ran back to the staff lift. Astra ran over and quickly stepped inside just as the doors began to close having just come from the office where she had finished filing the sales reports and locking up the till money.

Astra was on her way to take a cup of coffee and some of the muffins left over from this morning down to the Chief Electrician Wilson, like she did every day she worked. She and Rose both stood in semi-awkward silence as they travelled down to the basement.

~*0*~

Rose left the lift immediately once the doors had opened shouting as she went "Wilson? Wilson, I've got the lottery money. Wilson, are you there?" as she looked around for the man.

Astra stepped out of the lift cautiously from behind Rose, she didn't know why but there was something about the basement today that had her instincts flaring in warning. She stayed quiet and on alert as she looked around the unnatural quiet of the basement trying to find what could be the cause of her unease.

Rose walked down to a grey heavy-duty industrial door that had a large 'danger of electric shock' sign on it below a plaque that label the room the office of H P Wilson Chief Electrician.

Astra cautiously followed after Rose making sure to keep a constant eye on her surroundings. She jumped slightly when Rose suddenly started to bang on the door loudly while she shouted "I can't hang about 'cos they're closing the shop. Wilson! Oh, come on" she groaned to herself as she looked around trying to find the man.

There was the clattering sound of falling hangers from further down the corridor made both Rose and Astra both turn in that direction. Rose immediately starts stomping in that direction while Astra follows a little more cautiously. Astra was trying to remain calm and alert as she looked around making sure to keep quiet, which was very quickly rendered useless as Rose shouted "Hello? Hello, Wilson, it's Rose. Hello? W..Wilson?"

Walking down the corridor Rose glanced to the side at the pile of hangers that had seemingly fallen before heading to a nearby door that lead to the store room. She threw the door open and marched still shouting "Wilson? Wilson" as Astra turned on the lights revealing the walls were lined with boxes full of extra stock and half dressed shop window dummies. Astra cautiously made their way into the room as Rose stormed ahead shouting for Wilson all the way.

Astra couldn't contain the shudder that passed through her body as the hairs raised on the back of her neck with the feeling of being watched, she glanced around cautiously only to almost jump out of her skin as she spun to face the door just barely managing to contain the startled shriek that tried to work its way out of her mouth as the door slammed shut behind them. Rose ran straight back to the door and pulled futilely on the handle trying to get it open.

Astra immediately span around again looking around the room for anything that could explain what was happening.

Rose, finally giving up on the door muttered to herself "You're kidding me" turning around suddenly as there was another sound of falling hangers coming from further down the corridor. She saw Astra looking towards a section of male shop window dummies. "Is that someone mucking about? ... Who is it?" she yelled as she walked past a row of dummies.

Astra followed closely behind the younger girl just in case she needed to react quickly. She did not see as she passed the dummies one of their heads had turned to follow the two girls, nor did she notice when the dummy stepped off the wall rack and started to follow behind them staggering slightly as it adjusted to the ability to walk.

"Yeah, you got me. Very funny" Rose trailed off slightly quieter as she started to think something may not be quite right with this situation. Neither girl noticed when a second dummy joined the first, or the third.

"Right, I've got the joke. Who's idea was this? Is it Derek's? Is it? Derek, is this you?" Rose started to shout again having shaken off her feeling of unease as her mind rationalised that there couldn't be any danger down here.

Astra caught the sight of movement out of the corner of her eye turned around only to momentarily stare in shock at the site of the herd of dummies behind them. She snapped herself out of it quickly and spun around; catching the still oblivious Rose by the wrist she started to drag the girl away through the storage area. She headed to where she knew was an emergency service left and hoping they would be safe there.

Rose looked over her shoulder in confusion at the abrupt movement only to see the herd of dummies behind them both making her shriek out in surprise as she started to run as well, Astra kept a firm grip on the girls arm as she managed to pull ahead of Astra, who had been tipping over boxes and things as she went to try and slow them down.

Finally the dummies had managed to box them in from all sides, trapping them with their backs against a pipe covered wall. The dummy at the front of the pack raised its arm ready to bring it down on their heads.

Just as Astra closed her eyes, not wanting to see what was going to happen to them and trying not to listen to Rose fearful whimpering, a hand grabbed hers. Her eyes sprang open as she turned her head left to see what had grabbed her hand. What she saw surprised her, as it was a man, a remarkably calm man, with very short dark hair, crystal blue eyes and a rather large nose and ears, who was dressed mostly in black with his leather jacket, jeans and doc martin boots a red jumper not making much of a contrast with its dark colour.

The man looked her straight in the eyes and gave a single order, an order that Astra had no problem following. He simply said "Run!"

He pulled Astra by the hand, dragging her through the herd of dummies and by default dragging Rose with them as Astra had yet to release the girl's hand. The man had managed to drag them out of the way just as the arm of the dummy slammed down breaking the pipe clean in half and releasing a gust of steam right into the dummy's face. This caused the dummy to stumble back from the force of the blast before it caught its balance and started to chance after them.

~*0*~

The dummies followed them down the corridor as they ran for the service lift. The man pointed a silver tube at the lift making it open ready for them, they ran into the lift the Doctor in the lead with Rose following after having been shoved through first by Astra who followed close behind.

The dummy threw himself at the doors as they were nearly closed, just managing to fit his arm through as he made a grab for them. He just missed Astra's hair when his arm was grabbed by the other man from inside the lift. The man gave several harsh tugs before he managed to pull the arm right off the body allowing the doors to finally shut.

The man then turned around tossing the arm carelessly at Rose, which she hastily caught before he turned to Astra and grabbed her by the shoulders, looking her up and down. He ran his gaze over her checking for injuries now that it was relatively safe for them to do so. As he reached her face their eyes met and time seemed to pause for a moment as they got lost in a haze of familiarity and warmth that both of them where feeling but neither of them could quite explain.

"Thanks" Astra said with a smile breaking the spell that they had seemingly fallen under and his lips lifted into a small but sincere returning smile.

"You pulled his arm off" Rose gasped suddenly staring at the disembodied arm in her hands, seeming to come out of her shock from where she was stood frozen against the back of the lift where she landed when Astra pushed her through. This made both of their attention to her, both feeling slightly guilty for having completely forgotten she was there for a moment.

With a roll of his eyes the man turned and faced the lift door and crossing his arms, finally releasing Astra as he realised he still had his hands on her shoulder "Yep, its Plastic"

"Very clever. Nice trick! Who were they then? Students? Is this a student thing or what?" Rose demanded angrily, assuming he was responsible for scaring her.

"Why would they be students?" he asked, furrowing his eyebrows in confusion at the anger suddenly directed at him.

"I don't know" Rose defensively yelled.

"Well, you said it. Why students?" he asked, genuinely curious. He finally turned toward her as he tried to understand.

"''Cos to get that many people dressed up and being silly, they got to be students", Rose said calming down seeing the confusion on his face and wondering if she got the situation wrong and thinking that that was a reasonable explanation.

"That makes sense. Well done" he answered sarcastically, turning to face the front so she wouldn't see him as he rolled his eyes at her.

"Thanks" answered Rose, his sarcasm to sharp for her to notice.

The man in the leather jacket heaved a sigh, resigning himself to trying to explain it to her. "They're not students…"

Rose interrupted before he could finish, "Whoever they are, when Wilson finds them, he's going to call the police".

"Who's Wilson?" he asked, turning to Astra for an answer, both annoyed at Rose for cutting him off but also genuinely curious.

"Chief electrician" Astra said him seeing his attention turn to her for an answer.

"Wilson's dead" he stated, continuing to ignore Rose as he turned to face the doors again.

Out of the corner of his eye he noticed Astra close her eyes and look down in grief, this sent a pang of something through the man that he didn't understand but he knew he wanted to comfort the girl in some way. So, uncrossing his arms he reached out to take her hand in his and gave it a reassuring squeeze to express his sympathy. Not understanding at all the feeling this girl seemed to be evoking in him but deciding it didn't really matter he just didn't like seeing her upset and that he had time to think about it.

"Hold on. Mind your eyes" he warned, more to Astra than Rose.

Keeping hold of Astra's hand the man pulled her out of the lift. He took the metal tube out of his jacket pocket and pointed in straight at the lift call button panel. The end of the tube glowed a violent bright blue and emitted a high-pitched buzz until the button panel sparked violently. He then started running down the hall toward the fire exit, Astra close on his heels as he dragged her, his hand still in hers, leaving Rose to hurry to catch up, trailing behind them.

"I've had enough of this now. Who are you, then? Who's that lot down there? I said who are they?" Rose demanded, wanting to get answers from the man who seemed to actually know what was going on, only to be ignored.

"Are they robots, like remote control on a grander scale than just mini cars? And who is in control of them?" Astra asked rather more inquisitively than Rose.

The man seems mildly impressed with her deductions and logic, at least enough to reward her with an honest explanation. "They're made of plastic. Living plastic creatures called Autons. They're being controlled by a relay device on the roof, which would be a great big problem if I didn't have this". At this, he held up what appeared to be a small bomb that they hadn't noticed he was carrying. "So, I'm going to go up there and blow them up, and I might well die in the process, but don't worry about me. No, you go home. Go on. Go and have your lovely beans on toast. Don't tell anyone about this, because if you do, you'll get them killed".

"But we can't just leave you to die! Can't you set it to a timer or something?" Astra exclaimed, not wanting to leave the man that had just saved her to do something so dangerous alone.

After shoving Rose out the fire exit, he let go of Astra's hand, realising that he still had hold of it. He ignored the sense of loss that came with letting go as he comforted the girl "Like I said, don't worry about me" he smiled reassuringly at Astra for her concern before he shut the door behind him, only to open it again a moment later as he asked "I'm the Doctor, by the way. What's your name?" looking straight at Astra, seeming to have forgotten Rose was even there.

"Rose", she answered anyway, earning a dismissive look from the Doctor before he focused his attention back on Astra.

"Astra. Astra Nyx" the girl answered softly with a small worried smile.

The Doctor froze, shocked for a moment as his mind automatically went to the memory of a girl who used to use that very name before he shook it off and looked at the girl in question who now wore a concerned frown at the Doctors reaction making the Doctor smile at her in reassurance as he said "Nice to meet you, Astra Nyx" before he shook the bomb at them and said far too cheerfully for the current situation "Run for your life!" before slammed the door closed again.

~*0*~

Astra and Rose both made their way across the main road, Astra glancing around nervously at all the dummies in the shop windows. Rose almost becoming a hood ornament for a black cab. Ignoring the taxi drivers shouts of "OI! Watch it lady!" as she legged it across the road. They ran up the street constantly looking back at the building waiting for whatever the Doctor had planned to come into effect. Walking up a side alley that led Rose to her bus stop they both paused part way and just waited. When nothing seemed to happen they shared a look before they turned to go off in different directions, Rose for the bus and Astra for her car, when...

 **KABOOM!**

An enormous fire ball exploded from the roof of the shop taking out the top ten floors of Henriks. Rose turned and ran away leaving Astra stood there staring at the shops for a moment hoping the Doctor truly was OK.

Astra turned and started toward the car park when she spotted a 50's Police Box out of the corner of her eye, feeling the niggling sensation of familiarity in the back of her mind, the same way feeling she got from the Doctor. She shook her head and carried on towards her car ready to head home, feeling the need for a nice glass of wine to help her calm her nerves.

~*0*~

Back at the Tyler flat, Jackie was on the phone talking to one of her many friends, enjoying a good old gossip about what had happened to Rose's work place, thrilled to have the main news to share. Rose was sat slumped on the settee staring at the TV with a magazine in her hand, watching the news about her job being blown up occasionally glancing at the arm from the Auton on the arm chair next to her to make sure it wasn't still moving.

"I know, it's on the telly" Jackie said into the phone as she walked in with a cup of tea, which she handed to Rose before giving her daughter a considering look "It's everywhere. She's lucky to be alive. Honestly, it's aged her. Skin like an old bible. Walking in now you'd think I was her daughter. Oh, and here's himself". Jackie rolled her eyes as Mickey ran in continuing to gossip over the phone as she turned and walked back out again.

"I've been phoning your mobile. You could've been dead. It's on the news and everything. I can't believe that your shop went up!" Mickey rushed over to her and knelt on the floor next to the settee, sounding genuinely upset and concerned.

"I'm all right, honestly, I'm fine! Don't make a fuss" Rose waved him off as he leant in and gave her a hug.

"Well, what happened?" he asked, wanting to make sure for himself that she truly was okay.

"I don't know!" she shrugged

"What was it though? What caused it?" Mickey continued questioning; not willing to give up questioning until he knew for sure she was as safe and as calm as she claimed.

"I wasn't in the shop. I was outside with that Astra girl. I didn't see anything" Rose shrugged him off again, not noticing the concern that had entered his eyes at the mention of Astra being there too.

"It's Debbie on the end. She knows a man on the Mirror. Five hundred quid for an interview" Jackie cheered enthusiastically, covering the mouth piece on the phone, trying to get her daughter's spirits up.

"Oh that's brilliant! Give it here" Rose said, tired of her mother's behaviour. She took the phone from Jackie, who handed it over willingly and ended the call, slamming the phone down on top of the magazine now lying on the coffee table, ignoring the disapproving look her mother threw at her for her rudeness.

"Well, you've got to find some way of making money. Your job's kaput and I'm not bailing you out" Jackie exclaimed as she shook her head at her daughters behaviour. The telephone rang again and Jackie picked it up immediately, walking out of the room as she answers it.

"Bev! She's alive. I've told her, sue for compensation. She was within seconds of death" they heard Jackie say before she is out of hearing range.

Mickey noticed the cup in Rose's hand "What're you drinking? Tea? Nah, nah, that's no good, that's no good. You're in shock. You need something stronger" He stated, grabbing the cup out of her hand and putting it on the coffee table.

"I'm all right" she said, looking up at him with a shake of her head.

"Now, come on, you deserve a proper drink. We're going down the pub, you and me. My treat. How about it?" Mickey asked, seeing that he wasn't going to get much more out of her tonight.

"Is there a match on?" Rose asked, smiling up at him.

"No, I'm just thinking about you, babe" Mickey answered, making a show of mock offence.

"There's a match on, ain't there?" Rose asked a huge grin on her face.

"That's not the point, but we could catch the last five minutes" he shrugged, looking hopeful.

"Go on, then. I'm fine, really. Go. Get rid of that" Rose said, pointing to the Auton's arm on the chair.

Mickey gave Rose a quick kiss before he picked up the arm and headed for the door. He turned back towards her, waving the arm at her and said in a high pitched voice "Bye, bye".

"Bye" Rose laughed as Mickey made choking sound as he pretended to be strangled by the arm, and then he left.

~*0*~

Mickey threw the arm into a rubbish bin as he passed. He over-heard a couple having a blazing row before he pulled out his phone and called Astra.

"Hey, you alright? I heard you were near the shop when it exploded" He blurted down the phone the minute she answered.

"I'm fine, Mickey, just calming myself down with a nice glass of wine and making some cookies for tomorrow" Her voice was soft and calm, which reassured Mickey instantly; she really was alright, he knew the girl couldn't lie to save her life and her emotions always shone through in her voice.

They talked for a while about what she was going to do tomorrow and discussed some possible job opportunities before they hung up, not before Mickey secured her promise that if she needed him for anything that she would call him. Mickey headed off to the pub to watch the football with some friends.

~*0*~

After hanging up the phone with Mickey she smiled a little grateful someone cared enough to check on her, before it fell into a small frown of worry as she thought of the Doctor and wishing she had some way to check on him.

She let out a sigh and shook her head trying to get rid of her thoughts on the Doctor as there was nothing she could do about that, before she continued to mix the ingredients together for the cookie dough.

Once the cookies were done and in the oven to bake she decided to curl up on her settee, settling down she pulled out her well loved copy of the first of the Dresden Files Series by Jim Butcher to enjoy some reading while she enjoyed her wine.

~*0*~

The next morning Rose's alarm blared at the usual time of 7:30am. She smacked her hand down on the buttons to turn it off as she sat up in bed and looked around the room, wondering what to do with herself.

"There's no point in getting up, sweetheart" Jackie called as she walked passed her daughter's bedroom through to the kitchen, where she immediately put the kettle on. "You've got no job to go to"

Rose looked at the door for a moment, her sleepy mind trying to process her mother's words before realising she was right, she flopped back down in bed, pulled the duvet up over her head and went back to sleep.

~*0*~

Astra woke up a little later than normal at 7 o'clock. As she relaxed in bed for a bit not feeling the need to get up straight away, she thought about what she was going to do with her day. She needed to look for a new job, that much was obvious and she thought she might go and check on Rose to make sure she was OK after the previous night's events.

Decision made she got out of bed and showered before getting ready for her day. Deciding to visit Rose first she dressed in her blue chequered shirt tucked into her black jeans and black ankle cowboy boots. She put on her make-up and put her hair up in a ponytail before heading to the kitchen for some breakfast.

She makes herself a coffee, which she enjoys with a couple of toasted croissants and blackcurrant jam. Then she packs up some of the cookies she made the night before to take to Rose's and heads out for the start of her day.

~*0*~

At about 9 o'clock Rose was sat at the kitchen table playing with an apple as her mother walked in with a mug of tea, talking away at Rose about all the different place she knew she could find a job. She continued to offer suggestions to her daughter who just continued to ignore her "There's Finch's. You could try them. They've always got jobs"

"Oh, great. The butchers" Rose answered, not paying any attention to her rambling mother as she rolled the apple between her hands, she was too busy wondering if she was ever going to see the mysterious Doctor again. She found herself strangely drawn to the man after she had calmed down last night and wanted to find out more about him.

"Well, it might do you good. That shop was giving you airs and graces. And I'm not joking about compensation. You've had genuine shock and trauma. Arianna got two thousand quid off the council just because the old man behind the desk said she looked Greek!" Jackie said as she walked over to drop her cup in the sink before leaving the kitchen to get dressed. "I know she is Greek, but that's not the point. It was a valid claim" she called back over her shoulder.

There was a knock at the door, which Rose was set to ignore until her mother shouted down asking her to get that for her. Heaving herself off the table where she had slumped with a groaning sigh she went to the door. She opened the door only to find Astra stood on the other side wearing a pea coat and holding a Tupperware box full of cookies in her hands.

"I just wanted to see if you where alright" Astra said to the surprised look on Rose's face.

Rose stepped aside to let her in, taking the box offered to her from Astra as she passed. After closing the door, Rose asked out of nothing else really to say "Would you like a brew?" before leaving Astra in the sitting room.

"Tea, please. A touch of milk and one sugar" Astra called.

Rose headed to the kitchen and put the kettle on, absentmindedly chucking the box of cookies on the table.

The cat flap on the door rattled slightly as if something had come through it, which made both Astra and Rose jump and look toward it. "Mum, you're such a liar. I told you to nail that cat flap down. We're going to get strays" Rose called to her mum in annoyance as she headed back over to the door.

"I did it weeks back!" Jackie exclaimed, not knowing what Rose was going on about. She was far too used to the way her daughter spoke to her.

"No, you thought about it" Rose answered back quietly, distracted now by the sight of the screws that had once been used to fasten the cat flap shut where now lying on the carpet. The flap rattled again as Astra approached from behind her. Rose knelt down in front of it and pushed it gingerly with her fingers, nudging it open fully only to see a familiar face looking through it from the other side.

Rose stood up quickly and flung open the door delighted to see the man and explore what she was feeling. Only she didn't get a chance to say anything as the Doctor spoke in confusion "What're you doing here?"

"I live here" Rose answered the abrupt question, taken aback.

"Well, what do you do that for?" the Doctor asked as he began rooting around for something within his jacket before spotting Astra over Rose's shoulder and shooting a small smile.

"Because I do. I'm only at home because someone blew up my job" Rose answered getting defensive.

"I must have got the wrong signal. You're not plastic, are you?" the Doctor knocked his knuckles against her forehead like he was knocking on a door "No. Bonehead. Bye, then!" but before he could turn away, Rose grabbed him by the lapel of his leather jacket and pulled him inside the flat "You. Inside. Right now" she demanded.

"Who is it?" Jackie called out from her bedroom, having just come out of the bathroom. She sat putting on her moisturiser at her dressing table, and looked over to the door just as Rose poked her head through the doorway.

"It's about last night. He's part of the inquiry. Give us ten minutes" Rose said before heading toward the kitchen and leaving Jackie's bedroom door open.

"She deserves compensation" Jackie called perking up as the Doctor passed into view.

The Doctor lent against the door frame. "Oh, we're talking millions" He said, not recognising the look on her face, but Astra, who was stood behind him, did and paused wanting to see what occurred.

Jackie looked him up and down before she stood up and started fiddling with her dressing gown saying in what was clearly supposed to be a sultry voice "I'm in my dressing gown"

"Yes, you are" the Doctor nodded his head absently, not realising what she was implying and his expression clearly showed that he thought she was just stating the obvious.

"There's a strange man in my bedroom" she continued to play with the strap on her dressing gown, thinking he was interested as he... Well as he hadn't ran away yet.

"Yes, there is" he replied with a nod of his head.

"Well, anything could happen" Jackie purred her voice full of implications, only to be put down by the Doctor immediately answer of "Er... No"

This caused Astra to snicker as the Doctor headed straight for the sitting room. Astra headed for the kitchen to see if Rose needed any help making the brews.

"Don't mind the mess. Did you want a brew?" Rose asked as she moved around the kitchen making the two teas she had already set up for.

"Might as well, thanks. Tea, just milk" the Doctor called back as he looks around the room.

"We should go to the police. Seriously. All of us" Rose talked, as she worked waving away Astra's offer of help.

The Doctor was looking at the copy of Heat Magazine that had been on the coffee table, flipping through the pages. He stopped on a picture of Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes, commenting to himself "That won't last, he's gay and she's an alien" he was saying before Astra waked back into the room as he closed the magazine and put it back down on the table looking at the girl sheepishly.

"I'm not blaming you, even if it was just some sort of joke that went wrong" Rose continued to talk as the Doctor picked up a paperback book. He flips through all the pages quickly before tossing it back down "Hmm. Sad ending" he continued to comment to himself about things around the room while Astra watched from where she had settled on the settee, not listening to Rose as she rambled on in the kitchen.

"They said on the news they'd found a body" Rose continued, not realising she was being ignored.

"Rose Tyler" he read off a letter he had just picked up, he put it down again as he caught a glimpse of himself in the mirror and reacted as if he was just seeing his reflection, or perhaps himself for the first time. "Ah, could've been worse. Look at the ears" he said as he tugged on his ears.

"All the same, he was nice. Nice bloke" Rose carried on.

The Doctor picked up a pack of cards and started to shuffle them, singing slightly to himself as he swayed "Luck be a lady" as he shuffled the cards between his hands.

"Anyway, if we are going to go to the police, I want to know what I'm saying" Rose said.

Astra briefly left the room to grab her cookies off the table before re-entering the sitting room carrying the box she brought; the pack of cards went flying as the Doctor jerked slightly in surprise at her sudden entrance having not seen her leave. He looked a bit sheepish at her while she just smiled at him and asked "Would you like a cookie?"

"I want you to explain everything" Rose went on, now being ignored by the both of them as the Doctor enjoyed the offered cookie.

"Very nice, did you make these?" he asked while looking directly into her eyes, he had not been able to stop thinking about her from the previous night. At her nod he smiled and complimented "they're delicious".

This earned a smile and a quiet "Thank you" from Astra.

They heard a scurrying noise that seemed to be coming from behind the settee. They both turned to look at it frowning. "What's that, then? You got a cat?" the Doctor called over to Rose.

"No" Rose answered, confused by the seemingly random question.

The Doctor knelt on the settee and lent over to peer down the back of it. Astra stood not far behind him looked on curiously when the disembodied arm from the night before flew from behind the settee and latched around the Doctor's neck. Astra cried out in shock before she ran over to try and help pull the arm off him as he struggled to breathe through its grip.

"We did have, but now they're just strays. They come in off the estate" Rose said as she walked in from the kitchen with two mugs of tea. She took no notice of the Doctor being strangled as Astra tried in vain to pull the arm off of him.

"I told Mickey to chuck that out. You're all the same. Give a man a plastic hand. Anyway, I don't even know your name. Doctor what-was-it?" asked Rose, not even taking any notice to the fact that he was turning red from lack of oxygen.

The Doctor and Astra managed to throw the arm off. However, it suddenly halted in mid air, this finally caught Rose's attention, as the Auton hand latched on to Astra's face, throwing her backwards into the wall. Astra got knocked back into the mantle knocking off a few ornaments. The Doctor grabbed the arm and pulled at it repeatedly trying to get it off her before pulling too hard, and dragged both of them down on top of the coffee table and smashing it, the Doctor astride Astra as he tried to wrestle the arm away from her.

The Doctor rolled them so Astra was lying on top of him as they continued to try and wrestle the arm off of her face before it threw her back against the settee. The Doctor pulled out his metal tube device as Astra continued to struggle with the arm. He ran over and buzzed it with his device which loosened its hold and seemed to weaken the arm before he jabbed it directly into the palm of the hand. The palm glowed blue and there was a high-pitch buzz. The fingers stop flexing and froze in position.

"It's all right, I've stopped it. There you go, you see? Armless" the Doctor joked, as he tossed the arm to Rose, who caught it automatically again, not knowing what to do. The Doctor turned back around to check on Astra.

"I'm fine" she told him a little breathless. He nodded at her as he got up and then turned to help her up and lifted her over the remains of the coffee table.

"Do you think?" Rose asked angrily, she ignored the interaction between the Doctor and Astra and had come out of her shock, hitting him with the disembodied arm.

"Ow!" The Doctor exclaimed rubbing his arm. He frowned at Rose before he took the arm from her and headed for the door.

~*0*~

The Doctor ran out of the flat and down several flights of stairs, Astra not far behind him. Rose hurried to catch up to them, shouting "Hold on a minute. You can't just go swanning off!"

"Yes I can. Here I am. This is me, swanning off. See you" he said, jogging down the stairs. Astra managed to keep up with him as Rose struggled behind her.

"But that arm was moving. It tried to kill us" she exclaimed. Astra shot her an incredulous look at the inclusion of herself in that comment.

"Ten out of ten for observation" the Doctor said sarcastically with a roll his eyes as he continued down the stairs.

"You can't just walk away. That's not fair. You've got to tell me what's going on" Rose demanded.

"No, I don't" the Doctor said simply in a smug tone, as he reached the door he let Astra through first before heading out himself.

"All right, then. I'll go to the police. I'll tell everyone. You said if I did that, I'd get people killed. So…your choice. Tell me, or I'll start talking" Rose threatened, trying to blackmail him into cooperation.

The Doctor wasn't buying it. With a raised eyebrow he scoffed at her "Is that supposed to sound tough?"

Looking very unsure after his reaction, she sheepishly muttered "Sort of".

"Doesn't work" the Doctor stated with a amused smile.

"Who are you?" Rose questioned, changing the topic completely to try and throw the Doctor off.

"Told you. The Doctor" the Doctor stated throwing a frown over his shoulder at the girl.

"Yeah, but Doctor what?" Rose continued to try and get any answers from him.

"Just the Doctor" he said, speeding up as he got closer to his escape.

"The Doctor" Rose said, her voice hinting at the fact that she didn't believe him.

"Hello!" the Doctor said with a big grin, waving mock-cheerfully at her.

"Is that supposed to sound impressive?" Rose scoffed in disbelief.

"Sort of" he grinned.

"Come on, then. You can tell me. I've seen enough. Are you the police?" she asked, feeling as if she was getting closer to the truth.

"No! I was just passing through. I'm a long way from home" the Doctor answered.

"But what have I done wrong? How comes those plastic things keep coming after me?" Rose exclaimed earning her raised eye brows from both the Doctor and Astra.

"Oh, suddenly the entire world revolves around you. You weren't even attacked. You were just there, that's all" the Doctor said.

"It tried to kill me" She exclaimed hysterically completely forgetting Astra was even there.

"It didn't go anywhere near you" the Doctor scoffed "and besides it was after me, not you. Last night, in the shop, I was there, you blundered in shouting your head off, almost ruined the whole thing. This morning, I was tracking it down, it was tracking me down. The only reason it fixed on your place is 'cos you've both met me"

"So what you're saying is, the entire world revolves around you" Rose concluded in disbelief.

"Sort of, yeah" the Doctor said, his big grin almost splitting his face.

"You're full of it!" she snorted inelegantly.

"Why hello pot, meet Kettle" Astra mumbled under her breath to herself as the Doctor scoffed amused as he heard Astra's quiet comment.

"But, all this plastic stuff. Who else knows..." Rose started, only to be interrupted by Astra who had finally had enough.

"Never mind that, are people in danger from these Autons?" she asked, looking directly at the Doctor.

The Doctor paused and turned to face Astra grabbing her hands in the face of such a serious question "No, well yes but I swear I'm working on it" looking at her directly in the eye so she could see his sincerity "I promise I'll stop them"

"What, you're on your own?" Rose said with a look of disbelief on her face.

"Well, who else is there? I mean, you lot, all you do is eat chips, work, go to bed and watch telly, while all the time underneath you there's a war going on" the Doctor continued walking, looking a little surprised at the question.

Not liking the fact she was being brushed off that easily by someone she was interested in, Rose reached across him and grabbed the dummy arm. "Okay. Start from the beginning. I mean, if we're going to go with the living plastic, and I don't even believe that, but if we do, how did you kill it?"

"The thing controlling it projects life into the arm. I cut off the signal; dead" the Doctor said as if it should be obvious.

"So that's radio control?" Rose guessed.

"Thought control. Are you all right?" he asked Astra, who was looking around worriedly at the small family walking along the opposite side of the street toward the small play park.

"Yeah. So, who's controlling it, then?" Rose interrupted Astra who had opened her mouth to answer but instead chose to nod as the Doctor continued to look at her wanting her answer and ignoring Rose.

"Long story" the Doctor waved her off sure that even if he tried to explain she would not understand.

"Why shop window dummies though? What's that about?" Astra asked "I mean why, would anyone want to take over shops?"

"I know. Believe me, I know. They want to overthrow the human race, so they control the material that is the most widely used: plastic. There's so much of it in highly populated areas but it's often overlooked. Because of this, they will be able to catch you off guard and destroy you. Do you believe me?" the Doctor asked as he turned to look at Astra as he walked, not noticing he had grabbed her hand as he went.

"No" Rose answered the same time Astra nodded with a vocal "Yes" as if to emphasis the point.

The two shared a look with each other before turning to the Doctor, who was smiling at Astra. Rose stopped as he carried on walking a few steps ahead "Really, though, Doctor. Tell me, who are you?"

The Doctor looked back at her before he decided on what to say "Do you know like we were saying about the Earth revolving? It's like when you were a kid. The first time they tell you the world's turning and you just can't quite believe it because everything looks like it's standing still" he turned to face Astra and gripped her hand tightly "I can feel it. The turn of the Earth. The ground beneath our feet is spinning at a thousand miles an hour, and the entire planet is hurtling round the sun at sixty seven thousand miles an hour and I can feel it. We're falling through space, you and me, clinging to the skin of this tiny little world and if we let go..." he let go of Astra hand abruptly startling the girl who had been staring at him intensely "That's who I am. Now, forget me, Astra Nyx, Rose Tyler Go home" he said very seriously, grabbing the arm off of Rose, he waved at them with those last words.

The Doctor walked off toward a big blue police box that had been in the alley the other day, the words 'Police Box' written across the top, with the Auton arm. Rose turned to walk off sullenly, looking even more confused, towards another block of flats. Astra on the other hand stood there watching the Doctor, feeling like this was something she needed to see but also curious as to why he was going into a tiny police box.

Suddenly there was a rush of air and a strange whooshing noise coming from the place where the police box has just faded in and out of existence. Rose turned and ran back to try and see what had made the noise only to see nothing there. Not even acknowledging Astra, she frowned before turning and walking away.

Astra stood staring at the place the box had vanished from, unable to understand why everything about that man and the box seemed sofamiliar. It felt as if she'd seen him in a dream or something, a vague recollection she just couldn't grasp, she shook her head, every time she felt like she was getting closer to an answer it just seemed to slip away.

Shaking her head to get rid of those thoughts completely, Astra turned and headed off to her own flat to change ready to go job searching. She stopped to get her car at Rose's before heading off to a newsagents and grocery shop before she headed home.

~*0*~

"Hey, hey, here's my woman. Kit off!" Mickey said cheekily, opening the door to see Rose.

"Shut up" she said with a smile, appreciating the attention after getting nothing from the Doctor. She pushed past him, giving him a quick kiss.

"Coffee?" he offered.

"Yeah, only if you wash the mug. And I don't mean rinse, I mean wash. Can I use your computer?" Rose asked as she headed over to it, not waiting on an answer.

"Yeah. Any excuse to get in the bedroom." Mickey joked as he headed to the kitchen, only to seemingly come to a realisation "Don't read my emails!" Mickey called back to her almost guiltily.

Rose opened the internet browser and typed 'Doctor' in a search engine. Which only seemed to produce 17,700,000 results on all the different doctors and scientists in the world, so she tried searching 'Doctor Living Plastic', only to receive 55,300 results of all the plastic surgeons and doctors who have successfully used plastic prosthetic.

Lastly, Rose tried typing 'Doctor Blue Box'. This produced only 493 results. The top result said 'DOCTOR WHO? ...DO YOUKNOW THIS MAN? CONTACT CLIVE HERE'. In all capitals which made Rose click on the link and a fuzzy picture of someone who looked remarkably like the Doctor appeared.

~*0*~

Mickey and Rose pulled up on Clive's street in Mickey's bright yellow VW Beetle.

"You're not coming in. He's safe. He's got a wife and kids" Rose said, putting a stop to her ongoing argument with Mickey about meeting this Clive person.

Mickey, still not sure about this random man Rose seemed determined to meet even after having Astra do a little background check for him and confirming his family status "Yeah, who told you that? He did. That's exactly what an internet lunatic murderer would say" Mickey shouted after her, as she had already left the car and was heading over to Clive's house.

One of Clive's neighbours, who had been taking out his black wheelie bin, shot Mickey a nasty look.

Rose knocked on a door across the street from where they parked. A boy of about fourteen opened it and looked her up and down curiously.

"Hello, I've come to see Clive. We've been emailing" she asked politely, miming using a keyboard as if the boy might not understand otherwise.

The boy looked at the girl as if she were stupid before shouting over his shoulder "Dad! It's one of your nutters!" before giving Rose one last once over and frowning.

A rather large man came to the door and said "Oh, sorry. Hello. You must be Rose. I'm Clive, obviously" as he reached out to shake her hand.

"I'd better tell you now. My boyfriend's waiting in the car, just in case you're going to kill me" Rose laughed slightly.

"No, good point. No murders" Clive chuckled in response, taking it in good spirits before he waved over at Mickey who was still sat in his car frowning at him.

"Who is it?" shouted a woman's voice from upstairs, presumably his wife.

"Oh, it's something to do with the Doctor. She's been reading the website" Clive shouted back before gesturing for Rose to follow him through to the back. "Please, come through. I'm in the shed"

"She? She's read the website about the Doctor? She's a she?" said the woman incredulously, a pretty brunette walked down the stairs with a basket full of washing and an indulgent grin on her face at her husband's antics.

~*0*~

Clive led the way into his small shed in the back garden, the walls decorated with anything and everything that could possibly be related to the Doctor. Folders stacked up high on shelves with all the research he had done about the Doctor.

"A lot of this stuff's quite sensitive. I couldn't just send it to you. People might intercept it, if you know what I mean. If you dig deep enough and keep a lively mind, this Doctor keeps cropping up all over the place. Political diaries, conspiracy theories, even ghost stories. No first name, no last name, just 'the Doctor'. Always 'the Doctor'. And the title seems to have been passed down from father to son. It appears to be an inheritance. That's your Doctor there, isn't it?" he said walking around the table in the shed and pulling out an old photograph from one of the folders before showing it to Rose.

"Yeah" Rose answered, seeing the same photo that was on the website.

"I tracked it down to the Washington public archive just last year. The online photo's enhanced, but if we look at the original" he said, showing her the original photo, It was of the assassination of President Kennedy. The Doctor was one of the faces in the crowd.

"November the 22nd, 1963. The assassination of President Kennedy. You see?" Clive continued excitedly.

"It must be his father" Rose said frowning, not quite able to believe it herself even though she had seen the man.

"Going further back. April 1912. This is a photo of the Daniels family of Southampton and friend" he showed her a photo of 4 children and three adults posing on a dock, one of the men looking like the Doctor "This was taken the day before they were due to sail off for the New World on the Titanic, and for some unknown reason, they cancelled the trip and survived" he said, before turning and pulling a drawing off the wall to show to Rose "And here we are. 1883. Another Doctor. And look, the same lineage. It's identical. This one washed up on the coast of Sumatra on the very day Krakatoa exploded" he explained seeing the confusion on her face "The Doctor is a legend woven throughout history. When disaster comes, he's there. He brings the storm in his wake and he has one constant companion".

"Who's that?" Rose asked, fear starting to grip her as she stared at all the photo's in disbelief.

"Death" he said bluntly. "If the Doctor's back, if you've seen him, Rose, then one thing's for certain. We're all in danger"

~*0*~

Out in the street Mickey was lent against his car, idly glancing around the neighbourhood, what he didn't notice however was the wheelie-bin that the neighbour had brought out earlier starting to move slowly toward his car.

When Mickey noticed that the bin seemed to have moved closer and was now facing in his car's direction he stepped up off the car to investigate. He walked up to the bin and lifted up the lid shouting "Come on, then." he looked inside and frowned as he saw nothing in there to explain how it had moved.

~*0*~

"If he's singled you out, if the Doctor's making house calls, then God help you." Clive said leaning closer to the girl with his intensity, making Rose even more wary.

~*0*~

Mickey shut the bin lid warily and turned to walk back toward his car again, only to find his hands were stuck to the plastic lid. It stretched out from his fingers as he pulled at it, like it had melted and sealed itself to the tips.

The bin growled, seemed to puff up slightly before it snapped and finally whipped Mickey up into the air and inside itself with a loud burp.

~*0*~

"But who is he? Who do you think he is?" Rose questioned slightly scared, wanting to get this visit over with now so she could leave the man.

"I think he's the same man. I think he's immortal. I think he's an alien from another world" Clive explained, truly believing everything he was saying and wanting this girl to be very very careful if she was ever around the Doctor again.

~*0*~

Rose stormed away from the house her expression full of exasperation as she returned to the car. 'Mickey' is still sat behind the steering wheel. It doesn't look like he had moved since she went into the house.

"All right, he's a nutter. Off his head. Complete online conspiracy freak. You win! What are we going to do tonight? I fancy a pizza" Rose starts to rant as she opened the door and got back into the car.

"Pizza! P-p-p-pizza!" 'Mickey' rolled the word over his tongue; as if it's the first time he had ever said it.

"Or Chinese" Rose mused, not really paying all that much attention to 'Mickey' as she considered what food they should go and get.

"Pizza!" 'Mickey' stated as he started up the car and drove off, weaving dangerously down the road.

~*0*~

Rose and 'Mickey' were sat together at a fancy pizza parlour in central London, 'Mickey' looking rather... shinier than usual, with a grin perpetually attached to his face. Having just come from Clive's, Rose was busy telling Mickey all about the mad conspiracy-theorist and his theories, that the Doctor is an immortal alien from another world who has been spotted throughout several points in history: the assassination of JFK; persuading the Daniels family from going onto the Titanic; Krakatoa in 1883.

Rose hadn't seemed to have noticed anything different about 'Mickey'. She decided to drop the whole thing as a lost cause and started talking about what she could do in her hunt for a job.

"Do you think I should try the hospital? Suki said they had jobs going in the canteen. Is that it then, dishing out chips? I could do A-Levels. I don't know. It's all Jimmy Stone's fault." Rose muttered, jumping from thoughtful to regretful. "I only left school because of him and look where he ended up. What do you think?" she asked finally looking up at 'Mickey' from where she had been playing with a salt pile on the table.

"So, where did you meet this Doctor?" 'Mickey' queried, Rose's question ignored.

"I'm sorry, wasn't I talking about me for a second?" Rose huffed, irritated at being ignored.

"Because I reckon it started back at the shop, am I right? Was he something to do with that?" 'Mickey' continued forcefully.

"No" Rose said with a shake of her head. She looked 'Mickey' in the eyes.

"Come on" 'Mickey' insisted, a smile etched on his face.

Rose hesitated, eyes averted. She manages a guilty 'sort of' as she tried to brave meeting 'Mickey's eyes before failing.

"What was he doing there?" 'Mickey' questioned, a slight hint of aggression underlying his entire demeanour.

"I'm not going on about it, Mickey. Really, I'm not, because, I know it sounds daft, but I don't think it's safe. I think he's dangerous" she said to him, trying to turn him off the topic, knowing if she said anything about it she would probably go into it more than she meant to which would lead to revealing the truth about her slight obsession with the man.

"But you can trust me, sweetheart-babe-sugar-babe-sugar." 'Mickey' tried to reassure her, his voice was skipping and contorting into higher and lower pitches, sounding almost like a broken record. "You can tell me anything. Tell me about the Doctor and what he's planning, and I can help you, Rose. Because that's all I really want to do, sweetheart-babe-babe-sugar-sweetheart"

"What're you doing that for?" Rose asked, completely baffled by Mickey's out-of-character behaviour.

A bottle of champagne appeared beside 'Mickey', held aloft by a leather-clad arm. 'Your champagne' the waiter politely asked.

"We didn't order any champagne." 'Mickey' instantly dismissed the waiter without even looking up as he continued to interrogate Rose, any semblance of friendliness vanishing as he gripped her hand violently and glared at her "Where's the Doctor?"

"Madam, your champagne" the waiter offered to Rose, having moved over to her side of the table.

"It's not ours'" she said, waving off the persistent waiter as she tried to free her hand from 'Mickey's' grip. "Mickey, what is it? What's wrong?"

"I need to find out how much you know, so where is he?" 'Mickey' demanded, his voice getting louder and more aggressive by the word, catching the attention of all the other diners.

"Doesn't anybody want this champagne?" the waiter questioned in a mockingly innocent voice which finally gets their attention.

"Look, we didn't order it" 'Mickey' growled, finally turning to face the waiter a glare ready on his face for the irritating waiter, only to see that the waiter was in fact the Doctor himself "Ah. Gotcha" he said his face splitting into a very stretched looking grin of satisfaction.

The Doctor started shaking the champagne bottle vigorously as Rose turned around with a gasp at the sight of the man; he continued to shake the bottle a little more before he said "Don't mind me. I'm just toasting the happy couple". He aimed the bottle at 'Mickey', exclaiming loudly "On the house!" before releasing the cage around the cork and letting the cork fly hard and fast into 'Mickey's' forehead.

The cork hit 'Mickey' with the sound of bouncing rubber, making Rose look on in horrified disbelief as it disappeared into his forehead. A few moments after he was hit, 'Mickey' started to manoeuvre and twist his mouth and head around in an almost swilling motion before he spat the cork out of his mouth with a resounding pop.

"Anyway" 'Mickey' said as he stood up. He lifted his hand up in front of him, at which point his hand morphed into a rubber wedge, which he slammed violently down on the table in front of him. Rose fled over to the bar looking for a place to hide screaming loudly as she ran away trying not to watch as Mickey wrecked the tables around the restaurant.

The Doctor grabbed the Auton-Mickey in a head lock and, after a few tugs, he finally managed to twist its head from its body.

The rest of the customers all got up from the tables and were screaming and running around in a panic, all of them trying to get away from the destruction.

"Don't think that's going to stop me" the head spoke from between the Doctors hands, making the man behind the Doctor yelp in frightened shock. The body rose seemingly undeterred without its head and begins flailing around the restaurant causing even more damage.

Suddenly Astra came running out from behind the bar now wearing a professional suit and set off the fire alarm, she yelled over the sound of the alarm "Everyone out! Out now! Get out! Get out! Get out! NOW!" all the while directing people to the fire exit at the side out of the way of the danger.

Rose ran toward the back of the restaurant where she had spotted a door in that direction so she didn't have to go near 'Mickey' again, she was followed close behind by the Doctor, who had grabbed Astra's hand on his way past. They ran through the kitchens, the Doctor still carrying the head, while the body wreaked havoc on the restaurant behind them, eventually lumbering after them to the back exit.

~*0*~

They rushed through the back door, the Doctor sealing the door shut with his metal device while Rose ran down the alley straight past the same blue police box she had seen earlier in the park, to the end where there was a double corrugated metal gate secured by a thick chain and padlock. The Auton started banging on the metal door that the Doctor had just sealed denting it with every hit.

"Open the gate! Use that tube thing. Come on!" she cried hysterically, visibly scared.

"Sonic screwdriver" the Doctor said, wiggling it at Rose. He turned to Astra and asked "What were you doing there?"

He ignored Rose's shout of "Use it!" she answered him "There is, well, was a waitress job going" she waved absently behind her toward the now ruined restaurant.

"Ah" He said with a nod of his head "Tell you what, let's go in here" he nodded toward the police box and led Astra over to it.

The Doctor unlocked the doors and went inside; dragging Astra in before she had a chance to protest, not that she was going to, while the Auton hammered on the metal door practically bending the door in half under its relentless strength.

They could vaguely hear Rose shouting "You can't hide inside a wooden box. It's going to get us! Doctor!" but the Doctor was focused on Astra, who was staring around the huge room she had just been bundled into. She showed little reaction apart from the widening of her eyes and a slight parting of her mouth as she gazed around the impossible room she was seeing.

Astra wasn't paying attention to him though, she was too busy standing at the top of the ramp at the entrance to the impossible room and gazing around in wonder at her surroundings. Even though she was astounded by what she was seeing she still felt the now familiar pang of familiarity, even though she was sure she had never seen a place like it.

It was a huge dome-shaped room that looked almost organic in texture, with hexagon shapes embossed on the walls; the roof looked as if it was being held up by a variety of coral-like Y-shaped beams. It would have been very dark if it wasn't for the large glowing blue cylinder in the centre that lead down to what appeared to be a control console made up of various odds and ends, from a bicycle pump handle to a spiral-corded dial-wheel telephone. It also included a monitor which displayed a circular pattern and was plastered in sticky notes.

Out in the alley, Rose was still trying to get through the gate. Giving up, she ran inside the box after the Doctor, almost knocking Astra over as she ran up the steps. She stopped, took one look around the vast room inside before she immediately turned and ran back outside again. Backing away quickly, Rose ran around the box, noting its small size and how impossible it was to fit such an enormous room in such a tiny box.

Finally the Auton succeeded in smashing through the metal door, this forced Rose to make up her mind. With the decision pretty much made for her she ran into the box. "It's going to follow us!" Rose said as she entered the box, she swallowed with intimidation at the sight before her and resisted the urge to run back out again.

"The assembled hoards of Genghis Khan couldn't get through that door, and believe me, they've tried." The Doctor said as he patted the console proudly. "Now, shut up a minute!" He took out his Sonic Screwdriver and directed the light at Mickey's disembodied head. After scanning the head he put his screwdriver down and then began wiring it up to the console, he came to a stop next to Astra, who was now leaning slightly against the console, she had been watching what he was doing after she finally shook herself out of her shocked state.

"You see, the arm was too simple, but the head's perfect. I can use it to trace the signal back to the original source." the Doctor explained to Astra as he dragged the screen around the console "Right. Where do you want to start?" He asked in an attempt to address the confusion on both faces, he did not realise that Astra's confusion was the constant feeling of familiarity that surrounded this man and this blue box.

"Er, the inside's bigger than the outside?" Rose interrupted.

"Yep" the Doctor said fiddling with the console, only turning to face Rose with a sigh when Astra nudged him for being rude.

"It's alien" Rose said breathlessly, still trying to wrap her head around the impossible thing she was seeing.

"Yeah" he answered, smirking at her reaction.

"Are you alien?" Rose said in disbelief

"Yes. Is that all right?" the Doctor asked, looking toward Astra.

"Yeah" Rose answered looking around again, not even noticing that the question was towards Astra.

Astra's lips form a mischievous smile as she said "It explains the ears". The Doctor shot her a smirk when he saw the mischievous twinkle in her eyes.

"It's called the TARDIS, this thing. That's Time And Relative Dimension In Space". Astra flinched slightly as his words send a sharp pain stabbing through her head, and a voice, disembodied, rang through her mind: this is a type-40 TARDIS... grown by specialists... travel through Time and Space... The pain and the voice disappeared as quickly as they came, leaving her confused and curious about what had just been said as it trickled out of her head like a dream. By Astra's side, Rose burst into loud, dramatic sobs, catching the attention of both Astra and the Doctor.

"That's okay. Culture shock. Happens to the best of us" the Doctor said in an attempt to sound sympathetic and comforting, not really succeeding.

"Did they kill him? Mickey? Did they kill Mickey? Is he dead?" Rose sniffled.

"Oh. I didn't think of that" the Doctor said, frowning when he saw the worry in Astra's eyes at his answer.

"He's my boyfriend. You pulled off his head. They copied him and you didn't even think?" Rose started.

"Doctor, is the head supposed to melt?" Astra interrupted abruptly getting up from where she was lent against the console to get a closer look, anxious and more than a little bit fascinated.

"Melt?" the Doctor repeated, alarmed. He whipped around quickly and saw Mickey's plastic head quickly melting into the console. "Oh, no, no, no, no, no!" the Doctor cried, before he started running around the console, switching things on and pulling on levers, setting the TARDIS in motion.

"What're you doing?" Rose shouted over the noise of the TARDIS whirring.

"Following the signal. It's fading. Wait a minute, I've got it. No, no, no, no, no, no, no! Almost there. Almost there. Here we go!" The Doctor ran erratically down the ramp and for the door, grabbing Astra's hand and pulled her out with him.

"You can't go out there. It's not safe!" Rose yelled, but followed along quickly not wanting to be left alone in the strange box, only to see that they had somehow moved to the south bank of the river Thames.

~*0*~

"I lost the signal, I got so close" the Doctor grumbled exasperatedly, he walked over to the wall of the bridge overlooking the Thames, pulling Astra along with him.

"We've moved. Does it fly?" Rose asked, her voice going high from her incredulity.

"Disappears there and reappears here. You wouldn't understand" the Doctor said.

"If we're somewhere else, what about that headless thing? It's still on the loose" asked Rose as she visibly attempts to calm down, seeing that Astra seemed quite composed, as she had pulled herself up to sit on the wall next to the leaning Doctor and looking around curiously.

"It melted with the head. Are you going to witter on all night?" the Doctor huffed.

"I'll have to tell his mother" Rose whined, at the Doctors questioning look she said, her voice getting louder and higher as she went "Mickey. I'll have to tell his mother he's dead, and you just went and forgot him, again! You were right, you are alien" Rose ranted, as she waved her finger at the Doctor as he continued to look out over the Thames and the surrounding area, as if he was looking for something.

"Look, if I did forget some kid called Mickey" the Doctor started, clearly irritated.

"Yeah, he's not a kid" Rose tried to shout over him.

"It's because I'm trying to save the life of every stupid ape blundering on top of this planet, all right?" the Doctor continued, annoyed, pretending not to hear Rose's interruption.

"All right" Rose shouted going back to being hysterical.

"Yes, it is!" The Doctor said, glaring at her.

Rose, seeing his glare decided to change tactics "If you are an alien, how comes you sound like you're from the North?" Astra stared at Rose in shock, wondering how she could go from worrying about Mickey's death to questioning the Doctor's about his accent.

"Lots of planets have a north" the Doctor answered, clearly offended before smiling at Astra as she scoffed not believing his answer for even a moment.

"What's a police public call box?" Rose continued to throw out questions to keep the Doctors attention on her, completely oblivious to the looks of confusion that the other two were sending her way.

"It's a telephone box from the 1950s. It's a disguise" he said as he wandered back over to the TARDIS patting the corner of the box fondly, wondering why she was curious about that when he'd just told her he was trying to save the entire planet.

"Okay. And this…this living plastic. What's it got against us?" Rose asked.

"Nothing. It loves you. You've got such a good planet. Lots of smoke and oil, plenty of toxins and dioxins in the air, perfect. Just what the Nestene Consciousness needs. Its food stock was destroyed in the war, all its protein plants rotted, so Earth, dinner!" the Doctor said far too cheerfully whilst miming eating with a knife and fork.

"Is there any way of stopping it?" Astra asked.

The Doctor pulled out a corked test tube of blue liquid from inside his leather jacket and held it up to her. "Anti-plastic" he said to her questioning look. "But first I've got to find it. How can you hide something that big in a city this small?"

"Hide what?" Astra asked jumping down from her place on the wall "What exactly is it that you're looking for?"

"The transmitter." the Doctor said, walking back over to her and looking out over the river. "The Consciousness is controlling every single piece of plastic, so it needs a transmitter to boost the signal".

"What would it look like?" Astra asked, she looked up at the London Eye, an idea sparking in her mind.

"Like a transmitter. Round and massive, slap bang in the middle of London. A huge circular metal structure like a dish, like a wheel. Radial. Close to where we're standing. Must be completely invisible. What? What?" he stumbled to a stop as Astra nodded her head toward the Eye.

The Doctor turned around and looked trying to see what Astra was trying to point out to him on the south bank but he didn't see what she could.

"What? What is it? What?" he said, he turned to look again as Astra pointed and moved her arm in a circle following the shape of the Eye, at this point he finally caught on to what she was looking at.

"Oh, fantastic!" the Doctor cried, he grabbed Astra's hand and pulled her along as they ran across Westminster Bridge, Rose trailed along behind them, as she tried to keep up.

"Think of it, plastic all over the world, every artificial thing waiting to come alive. The shop window dummies"

"the phones,"

"the mp3 players,"

"the televisions,"

"the computers,"

"the wires,"

"the cables". The Doctor and Astra alternated, not even realising that they were doing it.

"The breast implants" Rose put in, as she tried to be helpful but she only succeeded in making both the Doctor and Astra look at her curiously.

"Still, we've found the transmitter. The Consciousness must be somewhere underneath" the Doctor shook his head.

Astra ran over to the parapet that overlooked the base of the eye and looked down to see a large man-hole at the bottom of a set of stone steps. "What about down here?" she called back over her shoulder to the Doctor.

The Doctor ran over to join her, peeping curiously over her shoulder. "Looks good to me, you're very good at this" he said with a grin, before he grabbed her hand and led her down some steps toward the entrance.

He opened the door, took a quick cursory glance around but saw nothing but a short ladder and a hellish red light that seemed to be emanating from further inside.

~*0*~

They climbed down the short ladder into a large brick-built room with a mass of chains hanging from the roof. From there they went through a door located a few feet away from the ladder, they continued down a flight of steps into a multi-level chamber.

Immediately in view was a huge pit, directly in the middle of the chamber's lowest level that seemed to be filled with a molten mass of some sort, writhing and wriggling with unnatural liveliness.

"The Nestene Consciousness." the Doctor whispered to Astra, who was stood directly next to him, one hand gripping the Doctors and the other nervously holding onto the railing "That's it, inside the vat. A living plastic creature"

"Well, then. Tip in your anti-plastic and let's go" Rose said her voice laced with urgency.

"I'm not here to kill it. I've got to give it a chance" the Doctor stated visibly disturbed at Rose's callousness.

He started down a set of steps on to a steel catwalk overlooking the seething, pulsating vat, keeping a tight hold on Astra's hand and dragging her down with him. He vaguely noticed that she was shaking and kept her eyes averted so as not to look at the ground but decided he would ask her about it later "I seek audience with the Nestene Consciousness under peaceful contract according to convention 15 of the Shadow Proclamation" he announced grandly as he released Astra's hand and stood straight with his arms clasped behind his back.

The Consciousness flexed and gurgled in answer which no one but seemingly the Doctor could understand as he immediately responded "Thank you. If I might have permission to approach?"

Rose slowly followed the other two down before spotting Mickey on a lower level, crouched nervously behind a crate. She ran over to him, crying out loudly "Oh, God! Mickey, it's me! It's okay. It's all right".

Before she could comfort him, however, Mickey put a finger to his lips, shushing her. "That thing down there, the liquid. Rose, it can talk!" Mickey whimpered, clearly terrified.

"You're stinking. Doctor, they kept him alive" Rose shouted toward the Doctor.

"Yeah, that was always a possibility. Keep him alive to maintain the copy" the Doctor answered off-hand, earning him a slap on the arm from Astra.

Rose was noticeably upset by this comment "You knew that and you never said?" she asked irritably.

"Can we keep the domestics outside, thank you?" the Doctor replied, frustrated at how she could still be moaning when he was very clearly trying to save the world.

The Doctor continued down another level, grasping Astra's hand as they went down another level. As he reached the platform directly above the vat, he pulled her closer, squeezing her hand reassuringly as she was now shaking rather violently.

The Doctor turned his attention once again to the living liquid, which was still rolling unpleasantly like a bubbling bog. "Am I addressing the Consciousness? Thank you. If I might observe, you infiltrated this civilisation by means of warp shunt technology. So, may I suggest, with the greatest respect, that you shunt off?" the Doctor questioned, asking in a mockingly cheerful voice, but didn't lose his serious undertone.

The liquid, now positively bursting upward, formed a shape not unlike a grotesque face, with protrusions that looked remarkably like eyebrows and lips. It churned and frothed in reply.

"Oh, don't give me that. It's an invasion, plain and simple. Don't talk about constitutional rights" the Doctor said to the Consciousness, which was apparently attempting to justify its actions.

"I am talking!" the Doctor commanded firmly. "This planet is just starting. These stupid little people have only just learnt how to walk, but they're capable of so much more. I'm asking you on their behalf. Please, just go" the Doctor exclaimed, his tone betraying his exasperation.

"Doctor!" Rose shouted in warning as a pair of mannequins grabbed the Doctor and Astra from behind. Astra let out a yelp of shock. The dummy holding her takes the vial of anti-plastic out from the Doctor's pocket and held it up for the Consciousness to see.

"That was just insurance. I wasn't going to use it." The Consciousness roared in anger, swishing and gurgling with fury. "I was not attacking you. I'm here to help. I'm not your enemy. I swear, I'm not" The Doctor rambled as he tried to calm the irate alien.

The Consciousness bubbled violently in reply. "What do you mean?" the Doctor questioned, worry etched in his voice. Just as he asked the question, the doors of a storage container swung open, revealing the familiar blue face of the TARDIS.

"No. Oh, no. Honestly, no. Yes, that's my ship. That's not true. I should know, I was there. I fought in the war. It wasn't my fault. I couldn't save your world! I couldn't save any of them!" the Doctor pleaded desperately with the Consciousness.

"What's it doing?!" Rose shouted in horror.

"It's the TARDIS! The Nestene's identified it as superior technology. It's terrified. It's going to the final phase. It's starting the invasion! Get out, Rose! Just leg it now!" the Doctor warned Rose.

As the plastic in the vat kept roaring at the Doctor, the world threatening to end, Rose instead of running pulled out her mobile phone and called her mother.

"Mum?" the Doctor heard Rose say. He glance back only to sees her yelling loudly into the phone. Perplexed, he turned back to the vat still struggling to get free.

A huge amount of energy started building up, creating a dome over the vat as a giant electrical surge launched straight up through the base of the London Eye.

"It's the activation signal. It's transmitting!" the Doctor shouted to Astra as they both tried to shake the Autons off.

Outside the chamber, the London Eye started crackling with blue energy.

"It's the end of the world" Rose whimpered, trembling as she curled up behind the crate with Mickey.

The plastic in the vat became extremely agitated as the signal started broadcasting from the Eye.

"The stairs have gone" Rose shouted hysterically as she finally tried to look for an escape.

The Auton's wrestled with their captives as they tried to throw them both into the vat, the Doctor and Astra fighting back as best they could under the unrelenting hold they found themselves in. Rose and Mickey ran to the TARDIS.

Rose pulled at the handle to try and get the doors open "I haven't got the key!" she shrieked as she realised they wouldn't open.

"We're going to die!" Mickey moaned as he and Rose huddled near the base of the TARDIS. Rose leant up to peer down at the Doctor and Astra as Mickey, who had his eyes averted in horror, clung to her leg.

Astra and the Doctor both finally managed to shake the Auton's off, throwing them both and the vial of anti-plastic into the vat. They would have taken Astra with them if the Doctor hadn't caught and steadied her in time. The Consciousness screamed as it started to turn blue and crack with the same energy it had just been broadcasting.

"Now we're in trouble" the Doctor said grinning insanely as he held Astra pressed up against him, making her smile back completely exhilarated.

Explosions erupt throughout the chamber and the signal from the Eye stopped. The Doctor and Astra ran to the TARDIS, where Mickey was still clutching onto Rose for dear life, quickly unlocking the door, they all rush to get inside. The TARDIS de-materialised just as the pipes on the ceiling started to burst and chunks of concrete started to fall down.

~*0*~

The TARDIS materialised on the embankment by a row of shuttered kiosks and Mickey ran out, terrified of what he had just been through and desperate to be as far away from the bigger on the inside blue box as possible.

Exiting the TARDIS, Rose called her mother again. Jackie answered, sounding distressed. "Rose, Rose, don't go out of the house. It's not safe. There were these things, and they were shooting! And they…" but Jackie doesn't get to finish as Rose hung up the phone, laughing.

She wandered over to Mickey, who was hiding behind a pallet, and tried to get him to stand up, murmuring "fat lot of good you were" affectionately.

Astra walked out of the TARDIS, straightening out her ruffled and torn suit, but other than that looking perfectly fine, looking over at Rose and Mickey she chuckled. The Doctor stood in the doorway of the TARDIS, leaning against its frame as he looked toward Astra.

"Nestene Consciousness? Easy." he smiled at her with a snap of his fingers at the last word as she smiled back.

Astra rolled her eyes with a smirk "Sure it was. The fact that we spent the majority of the time held down and I was the one who knocked the Auton holding the anti-plastic into the vat was absolutely no help what's so ever" sarcasm lacing her voice as her lips twisted into a crooked yet mischievous smile, "face it, you'd be dead without me there"

"Yep, yes I would" the Doctor said sincerely "Thank you. Right then, I'll be off, unless, er, I don't know, you could come with me. This box isn't just a London hopper, you know. It goes anywhere in the universe free of charge".

Rose frowned over at the two of them, not like the fact he was only speaking to Astra when she had been there and had helped too, interrupted before Astra could say a word. "What 'bout me? I helped too" she demanded.

"Alright One trip" he said thinking perhaps that it would be some extra incentive for Astra to come as it seemed she was friends with the girl as they always seemed to be around each other, the Doctor not realising that t was mostly coincidence that led them to always be together when the Doctor saw them. He then waved his hand toward Mickey whilst saying "And he's not invited" He turned back to Astra "What do you think? You could stay here, fill your life with work and food and sleep, or you could go anywhere".

"Is it always this dangerous?" She asked, the corner of her mouth betraying her excitement.

"Yeah" the Doctor grinned, seeing her poorly-disguised smile and finding he was unable to resist returning it.

Rose interrupted again by pushing past the both of them and walking into the TARDIS like she owned the place.

"Well?" the Doctor asked, shaking off his annoyance before remembering something else he should probably add "By the way, did I mention it also travels in time?"

Astra smiled at him and said cheekily "As long as we can go pick up some of my stuff first?"

The Doctor, unable to resist in his excitement, grabbed her hand and dragged her inside, he pulled her over to the console all the while ignoring Rose, who stood on the other side of the console scowling at the two. He began setting everything up ready to go before he remembered something. "What's your address again?" he asked, looking over at Astra sheepishly making her laugh at him.

 **AN: Hi everyone, I hope you like the new and improved version of the first chapter. Please let me know what you think by dropping me a review.**

 **BlackRoseBooks :) xx**


	2. The End of the World

**Disclaimer: I do not own Doctor Who.**

 **The End of the World**

The TARDIS materialised in the living room of Astra's flat. She ran out of the magical blue box and raced into her bedroom. Excitement thrummed through her as it appeared one of her greatest wishes and fondest dreams was about to come into fruition. She had always dreamed of travelling, granted at the time she hadn't quite thought it would be quite like this, not that she was going to complain. The advantages the addition of Time Travel gave to the opportunity had her mind spinning a mile a minute, trying to think of all the historical events and possible futures she may just have the opportunity to see, and her mind hadn't even started on those ideas about other planets yet! She knew this was going to be the adventure of a life-time!

The Doctor, who had followed her out of the TARDIS, a big grin on his face as he watched Astra run around her flat every which way, as if her mind was racing with everything she needed and her body was trying to do it all at once. Her excitement was almost tangible in the air around her and he could feel the same feeling rising within himself. He couldn't wait to see her reaction to some of the thing he knew he could show her, her reactions were so different to what was considered normal, she had such a unique outlook on the world and seemed to process things so differently, it was like she put aside her reaction, locking them into the back of her mind and focused solely on the problem, while she did that her subconscious dealt with her reactions letting her deal with everything in a calm and rational manner.

The Doctor decided to leave her to it and have a look around his newest companions flat, spotting some shelves he went to explore, wondering if there was anything there that could give him some ideas for some special adventures for her. Standing in front of the shelves he saw a large collection of Science and History books, all categorised within the subject or time period and then alphabetised within each category. He turned away with a grin as his mind spun with ideas before he spotted a smaller set of shelves next to her television which contained seemed to contain her fiction books and her DVDs, interest peaked again he headed over.

Astra, having finally managed to get her excitement under control, decided first thing she needed to do was clean up a little as she was still covered in smudges of god only knew what from the nights events. She headed to her bathroom she pulled off her raggedy suit and jumped in the shower quickly washing and cleaning her hair. Once finished she dried herself off and dressed in the outfit she had ready hung on the back of her bathroom door and blow drying her hair into loose curls.

Now dressed in a knee length blue dress, a sheer blue short sleeved cardigan which tied around her waist, she packed up her toiletries and headed over to her vanity to add a bit of make-up and put on some small blue heels. She packed up the things she needed from her vanity before she went to her wardrobe and pulled out a gym bag, dumping that on the bed she reached under it to pull out a suitcase and set to work packing up her clothes, bags, jewellery and her favourite shoes, she knew she had far too many to take them all. She then packed her more personal effects including a photo album and her latest journal before closing it and dragging everything out of the room.

She dragged everything back into the living room and left it all near the TARDIS, She turned and smiled as she spotted the Doctor grinning at her from where he stood looking over her small, in her opinion, collection of books before heading over to her kitchen.

The Doctor, who was looking over her books making a mental note of her large collection of British classics which were giving him plenty more ideas for trips, didn't notice he had now been joined by Rose who had followed him out of the TARDIS.

Rose not liking being ignored by the man when she was stood right next to him and wanted to prove she was far more interesting than some stupid old books started talking to attract his attention. She told him all about the famous people she had always wanted to meet so that she could say she had, all the actors she found attractive and actress she aspired to be like one day. She was so involved in telling the Doctor all about what she wanted that she didn't notice the look of annoyance and disgust he was sending her way.

The Doctor shook his head disgusted at the shallow, self involved behaviour of the child next to him, he could tell from the moment he met her that she was arrogant and never thought of anyone but herself. He was completely baffled by the fact that a woman like Astra, who was smart and funny but most of all kind could be friends with the shallow little girl who thought the world revolved around her.

Rose glanced around the room with a wrinkled nose as she took in the space Astra lived in. Everything was just so... tidy. Her mum had always kept their flat relatively clean but the place always looked lived in, but here there was nothing that made it looked that way, no magazines on the coffee table or coffee mugs left around. She looked over at what had the Doctors attention and grimaced as she saw the row upon row of books and barely any DVDs.

Once in the kitchen Astra packed up the iced chocolate cupcakes that she had made when she had come back to prepare for her interview. She grabbed her favourite mug from the cupboard and made herself one of her favourite coffees. Once done she packed up her coffee machine and coffee pods to take with her onto the TARDIS, she didn't think she could do without her coffee. She put it on the floor near the door grabbed her blue leather satchel bag from the couch and turned to face the Doctor.

The Doctor turned his attention to her once he saw her stop and grinned when he saw her ready to go with all of her stuff piled near the TARDIS. He headed over and grabbed some of it to help her take it inside, a bounce in his step caused by anticipation as excitement filled his body ready for the next adventure.

~*0*~

The Doctor led Astra to a room the TARDIS had created for her to use in-between adventures. He put her bulging suitcase and gym bag that he had been carrying down in front of the door and gestured for her to take a look. Astra put down the coffee machine she was holding, grabbed the handle biting her lip in excitement ready to see what this incredible box had created for her.

Upon opening the door she was froze in awe at the beautiful and perfect room revealed. A low double bed with a purple fluffy blanket and pillow stood out from the wall in the centre of the room, a wavy wall made up of shelves partially covered in books partially cut the room in half finished with a tall lamp. One the other side was a small white couch with purple fluffy cushions next to a computer desk. On the other side of the room was a giant mirrored double wardrobe next to a floor to ceiling stack of shelves. Light purple lights swirled across the ceiling, lighting up the room with a purple crystal chandelier in the centre with a pale grey hard wood floor.

Turning toward the Doctor she grinned with delight which just made the Doctor laugh as he gazed around the room. It gave off an open but warm feel despite it being almost completely white with just splashes of colour, with a feminine touch that he thought matched Astra perfectly. He helped Astra drag all her stuff inside and put it all near the bed , he took one last glance around the room before he grabbed Astra's hand and squeezed it to get her attention.

"Want to sort your stuff out now or d'ya think it'll wait till later?" the Doctor asked with a grin.

Astra didn't answer verbally, but the Doctor thought her grabbing his hand and leading the way out the door and back to the console room was really answer enough.

~*0*~

When they got to the console room the Doctor jumped down the steps swinging from the banisters to the platform containing the main console. He clapped his hands as he reached it and said "Right you two! You tell me, where do you want to go? Backward or forward in time? It's your choice. Where's it going to be?" he grinned as he looked toward Astra as he was only really asking her.

"Forwards" Rose jumped up from where she was sat on the captain's chair and ran over to the console, not giving Astra a chance to answer.

Astra nudged the Doctor as he seemed perfectly content ignoring Rose and kept his focus on her waiting for her answer. The Doctor sighed before he reluctantly turned his attention to Rose. "How far?" he grumbled, he just couldn't seem to help it though. The girl rubbed him completely the wrong way, the way she acted like Astra didn't even exist, how arrogant she was, how self important... he didn't like it at all, especially the way she treated Astra... he just didn't understand why. What was it about this girl that made him so comfortable around her and so protective of her... he just didn't know.

"One hundred years" Rose said her uncertainty making it sound like a question.

The Doctor set several controls and then the TARDIS started wheezing and rocking slightly making everyone grab onto the console just to be on the safe side as the TARDIS travelled. Once the rocking had stopped the Doctor straightened up and grandly gestured toward the door "There you go. Step outside those doors and it's the twenty second century"

"You're kidding?" Rose gaped incredulous not having really believed this thing was a time machine.

"That's a bit boring though isn't it? Can we go further?" Astra asked a challenging grin pulling up her lips as her eyes sparkled mischievously.

The Doctor grinned rising to the challenge presented and said "Fine by me" he set several more controls resetting the coordinates and sent them travelling again "Ten thousand years into the future! Step outside it's the year twelve thousand and five, the new Roman Empire" the Doctor announced, chest puffing out impressively as he motioned toward the door again.

"You think you're so impressive" Astra said her lips twitching into a playful smirk.

"I am so impressive" the Doctor gasped, placing a hand against his chest in mock offence.

"You Wish!" Astra laughed.

"Right then! You asked for it" the Doctor said grinning feeling more happiness than he had felt in quite a long time, as an idea sparked in his mind of what he thought would impress Astra, he pointed at her and said "I know exactly where to go. Hold on!" before he messed with even more controls and sent them travelling for quite a bit longer this time and a lot more violently, making them all cling to the console even tighter or risk getting thrown about.

"Where are we?" Astra asked excited, but the Doctor just gestured grandly to the door "What's out there?" as she kept looking between the Doctor and the doors.

~*0*~

The TARDIS had materialised in a room on a platform near the top of a small flight of stairs that led down to an open space finished with a large metal shutter. Rose ran out of the TARDIS quickly stopping in shock, surprised once again by the fact that they had moved. As she looked around the strange architecture her face grew tense with trepidation as she swallowed and headed down the small stairs, not quite sure if she could handle this.

The Doctor and Astra both exited the TARDIS at the same time. The Doctor staying with Astra in order to see her reaction and was not disappointed in her reaction. Her jaw dropped slightly as she gazed around wide eyed at the beautiful space that spread out before them. The Doctor chuckled slightly catching her attention making her blush slightly at being caught gaping like an idiot.

The Doctor shot her a look of reassurance as he said "No need to be embarrassed" before he turned around and headed toward the back of the TARDIS to where there was a small panel on the wall. He lifted the cover before taking his sonic screwdriver out of the inside pocket of his leather jacket.

Astra, who had followed him curious as to what he was doing, watched as he twisted and turned the device pointing at the circuit behind the cover until there was a mechanical beep. The shutter that had been covering the wall began to rise, revealing an orbital view of the Earth. Her awe became even more pronounced and her jaw dropped again as she stared in silence at the beautiful view in front of them as she slowly approached the rising shutter still holding her cup of coffee and box of cupcakes that she had grabbed off the console as they left the TARDIS.

"You lot" the Doctor said as he came to a stop behind Astra as she took in the view, leaving Rose stood a bit further behind "you spend all your time thinking about dying, like you're going to get killed by eggs or beef, global warming or asteroids. But you never take the time to imagine the impossible, that maybe you survive. This is the year five point five slash apple slash twenty six. Five billion years in your future and this is the day" the Doctor looked down at his watch "Hold on"

As they watched the sun flared violently rendering them all momentarily blind before it settled and their eyes adjusted just in time to see the sun turn a violent red and the glare covered a quarter of the Earth.

"This is the day the sun expands" the Doctor smiled and turned to look at his gobsmacked companions, who hadn't taken their eyes off the huge blazing red sun, as he finished his explanation "welcome to the end of the world"

~*0*~

A pair of small pod spaceships approached a large space station that was shaped like a crucifix, oddly appropriately hung in Earth's orbit. They approached the right horizontal part of the platform and prepared to dock.

"Shuttles five and six now docking" a computerised voiced announced "Guests are reminded that Platform One forbids the use of weapons, teleportation and religion. Earth death is scheduled for fifteen thirty nine, followed by drinks in the Manchester suite"

~*0*~

Back inside the space station the Doctor and Astra walked along a corridor both of them looking around with interest as they headed for the door that was guarded on either side by two giant goblets that depicted ancient battles. Rose trailed behind them as she looked around herself trying to pull herself together as the two in front of her talked.

"So, when it says guests, does that mean people?" Astra asked intrigued.

"Depends on what you mean by people" the Doctor answered looking away so Astra couldn't see his smile as he waited for the reaction he knew was coming.

"I... well I meant humans I suppose. What do you mean?" Astra stumbled a little on that idea having not really thought about it before she asked the question.

"Aliens" the Doctor smirked as he finally looked over at her and noticed the way her eyes had lit up with curiosity and absolutely no fear, it made him smile to see he was right as they carried on walking.

"What are they doing on board this then?" Rose squeaked from behind them having heard his answer, she did not want to run into any aliens.

"It's not really a spaceship, more like a space station, or an observation deck. The great and the good are gathering to watch the Earth burn" the Doctor said while he used his sonic screwdriver on another wall panel.

"What for?" Astra asked, frowning in confusion.

"Fun" the Doctor said as the door slid open.

"No I meant why? Why would a bunch of random aliens be interested in what happens to the Earth" Astra clarified realising she hadn't been very clear with her earlier question.

"Ah" the Doctor nodded "Depends on which aliens they are" he finished with a grin as he wandered inside leaving Astra looking even more interested and Rose in a higher state of panic.

~*0*~

"When you say the great and the good, what does that mean" Astra asked having a suspicion. If it was anything like modern day Earth like she suspected, millionaires and government officials and things going to different charity auctions and things to keep up appearances, then she just wanted to confirm it.

"What I mean is the Rich, yeah" the Doctor nodded seeing the look in her eye that she already knew. He stepped to the side giving her a view of the new room they had just entered.

She gazed around the large area with interest, she saw many different things within a huge amount of display case that were dotted around the room, laughing slightly to herself as she spotted an old slightly battered copy of Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone in one of them and a magnificent view of space surrounding them.

"Wait a minute. They did this once on the National Geographic channel. The Sun expanding, what would cause the end of the world theoretically? That was supposed to take millions of years. Does that mean we are millions of years in the future?" Astra asked having been too distracted earlier from the view to have worked that out from what he said.

"Billions, yup, but the planet is now property of the National Trust. They've been keeping it preserved. See down there?" he explained as he pointed out the window at the various satellites stationed around the Earth "Gravity Satellites holding back the sun"

"The planet looks the same as ever though. I thought the continents shifted and the icecaps melted and... well probably more things that have been discovered and happened between then and now" Astra mused out loud, her mind whirling with the endless possibilities that lay before her.

"They did, and the Trust shifted them back" the Doctor nodded out the window "That's a classic Earth. But now the moneys run out and nature takes over"

Astra's natural curiosity over everything had the Doctor in a fit of smiles; it was so different and so very good to see. It was a great reminder of why he travelled in the first place, especially with a companion, the reactions coming from someone who had a curiosity to match his own reacting to the sights and experiences that lay before them. It was making him see the beauty of the universe once again, something he regretfully thought to himself he had seemed to have lost for a time, but Astra, she was helping to bring some light back to his life and he was only too happy to answer any questions her inquisitive and curious mind could come up with.

"How long has it got left?" Astra asked as they gazed down at the Earth.

The Doctor looked at his watch again as he replied "About half an hour and then the planet gets roasted" he said with no small amount of enthusiasm colouring his voice, clearly enjoying himself.

Astra grabbed his wrist to look at his watch; both her eyebrows rose in surprise as she looked at the strange watch. The clock face was covered in the same circular scripture she had seen around the TARDIS, with several other different clock faces surrounding it.

"It's from my home planet, it changes to suit the space/time coordinates of your current location so that you can always tell the time/date where ever you are" the Doctor said with a melancholic smile as he indulged the curious human. He remembered the girl that had made this watch for him, she had been equally curious about everything. She had always liked to write in journals and would always put the down the date time reference at the start of any entry and got annoyed when they first started travelling as children when her regular Earth watch had been rendered useless when on other planets. So, she set about making herself a new one, one for each of them would adjust accordingly. That girl had defended herself fiercely when he had teased her about it saying it was always useful to be able to tell the time no matter where you were, and she was right, as she so often had been.

"Is that why we're here? I mean is that what you do? Jump in at the last minute and save the Earth?" Rose asked, she was confident she knew what his answer was going to be and wanting to drag the Doctors attention away from Astra and on to herself now she had managed to calm herself down.

"I'm not saving it. Times Up!" the Doctor said cheerfully, as he grinned at the clearly shocked girl.

"Are there any people still down there?" Astra asked, knowing there probably wasn't but wanting to make sure.

"No" the Doctor said, smiling at her in reassurance "It's empty they're all gone. There no one left"

"Just me then" Rose muttered to herself shocked. She was so lost in her own thoughts that she didn't notice the look of disgust the Doctor shot her or the eye roll she received from Astra, her irritation with the girl rising with every interaction.

She liked to think she had quite a bit of patience but she always found that patience quickly waning when it was put to the test against arrogant and self absorbed people which meant it was probably a good idea that she ignored Rose for the most part. It did make her wonder though, why had the Doctor let her just waltz into the TARDIS that way; he did not seem to like her very much. She made a mental note to ask him if she got the chance to grab him alone later.

They looked out of the window, continuing to gaze at the incredible sight before them, none of them noticing a blue skinned humanoid with golden snake like eyes striding into the room and toward them looking down at the holographic pad in his hands; he was wearing a patterned suit and a skull cap. He stopped short as he looked up and spotted the three of them calling out in surprise "Who the hell are you?"

"Oh, that's nice, thanks" the Doctor said cheekily with a big grin on his face, he always did like surprising people.

"But how did you get in? This is a maximum hospitality zone. The guests have disembarked. They're on their way any second now" the Steward stuttered in a slight panic caught off guard. He was not up to his usual level of professionalism and politeness having not expected anyone to have been on board yet.

"That's me. I'm a guest. Look, I've got an invitation" the Doctor explained as he held up a leather bound wallet that contained what looked like a perfectly ordinary, if slightly worn, blank piece of paper "Look, There you see? Its fine, you see? The Doctor and Astra Nyx" the Doctor then seemed to remember the blond girl stood on his other side and quickly added "plus one" hoping the Alien was too flustered to have noticed the change on the paper he still had held up, hurriedly explaining himself with a wave of his hand in Roses direction "She's Rose Tyler, the plus one. Is that alright?"

The Doctor closed his wallet with a grin as the blue skinned man backtracked quickly as he said "Well, obviously. Apologies, etcetera. If you're on board, we'd better start. Enjoy"

The steward hurried over to a clear glass announcer's podium that held a microphone with no visible wires.

"The paper's slightly psychic. It shows them whatever I want them to see. Saves a lot of time" the Doctor explained to Astra, waving the wallet at her when he saw her questioning glance.

"Useful" Astra murmured to herself under impressed quite impressed as her mind whirled with the all the things she could do with that.

"He's Blue" Rose gasped loud enough for the Doctor to hear, as she came out of her shock slightly.

"Yeah" He nodded with a roll of his eyes, silently wondering to himself whether she would even be able to handle some more alien looking creatures.

"Okay" she gasped out in a long breath, trying to calm down as she saw Astra looking around at all the aliens calm and curious and not in the least bit frightened.

The Steward cleared his throat to catch their attention before he started "We have in attendance the Doctor, Astra Nyx and Rose Tyler. Thank you. All staff to their positions" he announced grandly to the room at large over what, Astra assumed, was a hidden loud speaker as the Doctor waved at him.

At his words two doors on either side of the podium opened and a lot of small blue Oompa Loompa looking aliens entered, dressed in what looked like leather jump suits and crash helmets.

"Hurry, now, Thank you. Quick as you can. Come along, come along. And now, might I introduce the next honoured guest? Representing the Forest if Cheem, we have the trees, namely Jabe, Lute and Coffa" he announced as a lady with what could only be bark for skin entered with two larger, equally bark skinned male escorts.

"There will be an exchange of gifts representing peace. If you could keep the room circulating, thank you. Next, from the solicitors Jolco and Jolco, we have the Moxx of Balhoon" he announced as another little blue alien entered, this time mostly made up of a huge bulbous head and a tiny body with spindly legs and arms, he was sat on a transport pod.

"And next, from the Financial Family Seven, we have the Adherents of the Repeated Meme" he announced next as a group of five tall humanoids clad completely in flowing black robes entered the room.

"The inventors of the Hydro-Slip Travel Systems, the brothers Hop Pyleen. Thank you" he announced next as two reptilian looking humanoids entered, dressed in luxurious furs and pelts.

The announcements continued with "Cal Sparkplug" as another pair of humanoids, this time wearing dome shaped hooded robes entered.

"Mister and Mrs Pakoo" this time two humanoids with bird like heads entered the room, complete with beaks and feathers.

The last two humanoids to enter the room were also dressed in robes, but their large bulbous heads were uncovered this time "the Ambassadors from the City State if Binding Light"

The tree people approached the Doctor, Astra and Rose as they came to a stop in front of them the female tree person spoke "The gift of peace. I give you a cutting of my grandfather" she turned to one of her companions and took a small twig that had been planted into a small red pot from him before he handed it over to the Doctor.

"Thank you. Yes, gifts. Er..." the Doctor stammered slightly as he patted himself down trying to find something in his many pockets that may represent a gift of peace. He straightened realising that he had nothing and said confidently "I give you air from my lungs" before breathing gently over Jabe, the female tree.

"How... intimate" Jabe purred, her tone oddly flirtatious.

"There's more where that came from" the Doctor grinned, seeming completely oblivious to the fact that he was being flirted with.

"I bet there is" she said suggestively before she turned to walk away.

"Would you like a cupcake?" Astra offered before they could walk away, she opened her cupcake box and let them take one each. Jabe smiled at the girl before she took two and handed one to each of her companions and then took one for herself.

"Thank you" Jabe said with a smile before they moved on to the next group of guests.

Astra then turned to the Doctor, an alarmed expression taking over her face "They won't be allergic to anything in them, will they?" She asked, worry coating her voice.

The Doctor laughed slightly at her concern before he answered with a shake of his head "No, they won't be allergic. Cupcake recipes haven't changed that much they would have said something if they were. I think" the Doctor frowned slightly at the end wondering what their intelligence level might be, but as he looked over, he saw them scanning the cupcakes with a metal device. He figured they would be safe, a fact which he pointed out to Astra who thankfully didn't look offended that they where scanning her food.

"From the Silver Devastation, the sponsor of the main event, please welcome the Face of Boe" they heard announced over the speaker system which brought there attention over to the door again just as a large glass cylindrical case that only just fit through the door, containing a giant, old looking humanoid head with straggly hair, small tentacles surrounded the face, large squinty eyes, full lips and flat nose.

"The Moxx of Balhoon" the Doctor exclaimed cheerfully, passing the plant pot over to Rose as they were approached by the small blue alien on a transport pod.

"My felicitations on this historical happenstance. I give you the gift of bodily saliva's" he said before he then spat with great accuracy and hit Rose in the eye. This made the Doctor laugh a little as Astra tried to hide her amused smile at the disgusted expression on Rose's face.

"Thank you very much" the Doctor said with a big grin on his face as the alien took one of the cupcakes Astra offered.

The black robed group glided up as the Doctor said "Ah! The Adherents of the Repeated Meme. I bring you air from my lungs" then he breathed all over them.

A large metal clawed hand held out a ball to them "A gift of peace in all good faith" the figure stood before them said in a breathy mechanical voice as he handed it over, the Doctor threw it up in the air and caught it before immediately passing it over to Rose while he glared after them slightly as he saw them rudely ignored Astra's offered cupcakes.

"And last but not least, our very special guest. Ladies and Gentlemen, and trees and multi forms, consider the Earth below. In memory of this dying world, we call forth the last Human. Lady Cassandra O'Brien Dot Delta Seventeen" the Steward announced as a metal frame was wheeled in by two men hidden in top-to-toe hospital whites and wearing some very technical looking goggles. The frame contained a very thin stretched out piece of skin. It's only features were some make-up heavy eyes and very red lips; it had a jar attached to the base which seemed to contain a brain.

"Oh, now, don't stare. I know, I know its shocking isn't it? I've had my chin completely taken away and look at the difference. Look at how thin I am. Thin and Dainty. I don't look as day over two thousand. Moisturise me. Moisturise me" Lady Cassandra ordered of one of her companions.

One of the attendants used a pump that was attached to a large canister containing some sort of liquid on its back and sprayed it liberally on the stretched skin.

"Truly, I am the last Human. My father was a Texan; my mother was from the Arctic Desert." Cassandra explained to all the gathered groups who had paused in there circulation out of respect for the last human as Rose walked around the side of the room to see around the back of Cassandra "They were born on the Earth and were the last to be buried in its soil. I have come to honour them and say goodbye" Cassandra said as the other attendant pulled out a tissue and lightly dabbed her eyes for her "Oh, no tears, no tears. I'm sorry. But behold, I bring gifts. From Earth itself, the last remaining ostrich egg" she announced as a little blue alien carried out an Ostrich egg on a dark purple velvet cushion "Legend says it had a wingspan of fifty feet and blew fire from its nostrils. Or was that my third husband? Oh, no. Oh, don't laugh. I'll get laughter lines. And here, another rarity"

Rose, by now, had managed to walk around to the back of Cassandra, being able to see the back of Cassandra at how thin, almost transparent she was turned a little green, disgusted by what she was seeing just as they wheeled in a 50's jukebox.

"According to the archives, this was called an iPod. It stores classical music from humanity's greatest composers. Play on!" Cassandra ordered one of the little blue alien and he went and pressed a button on the machine, a 45" was selected and the strains of Tainted Love by Soft Cell rang out, the Doctor bobbed his head around in time with the music making Astra giggle at him as she softly sang along as well.

"Refreshments will now be served. Earth Death in thirty minutes" the Steward announced before he stepped out from behind the podium in order to mingle and assist any of the guests.

Rose looked around the room, skipping from one group to another and another, her breathing quickening with every new strange creature her eyes found before she just had to get out, she needed to escape so she turned around and blindly ran out of the room.

The Doctor who had been looking over at the blonde human, he sighed as he saw her run out of the room. He looked around slightly before he seemed to come to a decision; he grabbed Astra's hand and then went to follow her. On their way out of the room they got intercepted by Jabe who stood directly in front of them holding the same device they had used to scan Astra's cupcakes.

"Doctor?" Jabe asked as the Doctor looked up the device flashed at him seeming to take a 3D picture "Thank you" she said politely as she stepped off to the side and watched him carry on to the door.

As they passed they could vaguely hear one of the Adherents say "A gift of peace in all good faith" as they tried to offer a reluctant Steward one of the metal balls.

"No, you're very kind, but I'm just the Steward" he tried to deny them but they were very insistent.

"A gift of peace in all good faith" he demanded as they forced one of the balls into the Stewards hands.

The Steward took it feeling rather resigned as he said "Well, yes, thank you. Of course"

~*0*~

Jabe consulted her camera, which twittered like birds but she seemed to be able to understand it "Identify species. Please identify species. Now stop it. Identify his race. Where's he from?" she demanded of the device as it refused to answer "It's impossible" she said as the device reluctantly revealed the results of its scan.

She hurried away without noticing one of the Adherent's gifts had been placed on a shelf in a nearby display stand. It opened, and a four-legged metal spider was revealed it looked around with its glowing red eye before it scurried away.

~*0*~

Rose ran as far and as fast as she could until she ended up in a side room with a smaller window which was overlooking the growing Sun. As she stood there looking out, a young woman of the same race as the Steward came round the corner wearing overalls and a baseball cap.

The alien cleared her throat to alert Rose to her presence, which caused Rose to yelp and spin around. She swallowed harshly as she was faced with yet another alien; at least this was one of the less weird ones she thought to herself before she asked after a moments surprise "Sorry. Am I allowed to be in here?"

"You have to give us permission to talk" the alien said in an under tone.

"Oh, Er, you have permission" Rose stuttered slightly.

The alien smiled and said "Thank you. And, no, you're not in the way. Guests are allowed anywhere" before she headed over to a nearby panel on the wall and unlocked it.

"Okay. What's your name?" Rose questioned.

"Raffalo" the Alien said quite surprised, far too used to being ignored.

"Raffalo?" Rose pronounced the word carefully

"Yes, miss. I won't be long; I've just got to carry out some maintenance. There's a tiny little glitch in the Face of Boe's suite. There must be something blocking the system. He's not getting any hot water" she said as she looked into the vent that she unlocked.

"So, you're a plumber?" Rose questioned, quite relieved that there was something normal that she recognised from her time still around amongst all the strangeness.

"That's right, miss" she nodded looking over at her with a smile.

"They still have plumbers?" Rose questioned to herself.

"I hope so, else I'm out of a job" Raffalo said, as she chuckled at her own joke.

"Where are you from?" Rose asked, knowing she probably wouldn't recognise anything she said but wanting to ask anyway.

"Crespallion" Raffalo answered with a smile.

"That's a planet, is it?" Rose asked trying not to sound completely clueless.

"No. Crespallion's part of the Jaggit Brocade, affiliated to the Scarlet Junction, Convex fifty six. And where are you from, miss? If you don't mind me asking" she tagged on quickly knowing some people wouldn't want to be questioned by the maintenance staff.

"No, not at all. Er, I don't know. A long way away. I just sort of hitched a lift with this man. I didn't even think about it. I don't even know who he is. He's a complete stranger. Anyway, don't let me keep you. Good luck with it" Rose rambled toward the end as she realised she had basically ran away with a stranger.

"Thank you, miss. And er, thank you for the permission. Not many people are that considerate" Raffalo thanked her.

"Okay. See you later" Rose waved slightly as she walked off out of the room.

Raffalo removed the wall panel in order to have a proper look inside "Now then. Control, I'm at junction nineteen and I think the problem's coming from in here. I'll go inside and have a look" she said talking into a walkie talkie like device that she had clipped on to her overalls. Before she could crawl into the conduit, there is a tapping sound of metal on metal "What's that? Is something in there?" Raffalo shouted down it.

A metal spider with a red light for an eye on the front came into view and walked a bit toward her and tilted slightly as if examining her as he scanned her with the same red light of its eye.

"Oh! Who are you, then?" Raffalo asked nicely, only causing it to scuttle away again "Hold on! I if you're an upgrade I just need to register you, that's all. Oh, come back" she called down the shaft as she crawled further inside the conduit.

"Ah, there you are" she said relieved as the spider came back into view "Now, I just need to register your identity Oh, there's two of you" she said as another scuttled into view "Got yourself a little mate. I think I'd better report this to Control. How many of you are there?" the woman asked as two more scuttled into view "What are you? Oh, no, no, no!" she yelled as the spiders all surged forward and dragged inside the conduit.

~*0*~

The Steward made his way into his office and put his gift on a side table, before sitting at his desk just as the computer beeped and burbled at him "What's that? Well, how should I know?" he said to his computer with a roll of his eyes.

He turned on the speaker system and announced "Would the owner of the blue box in private gallery fifteen please report to the Steward's office immediately. Guests are reminded that use of teleportation devices is strictly forbidden under Peace Treaty five point four slash cup slash sixteen. Thank you"

To the side of his desk on the side table the ball hatched and another metal spider popped out which looked around to see if there was anyone there, seeing no one it then scuttled off.

~*0*~

"Earth Death in twenty five minutes" the computerised voice announced throughout the space station.

Rose somehow managed to get back to the room they had originally left the TARDIS in earlier and sat on the platform playing with the metal ball that the Doctor had given her to hold.

"Earth Death in twenty five minutes" the computerised voice repeated.

"Oh, thanks" Rose sighed as she put the ball down slightly behind her and picked up the twig in the small plant pot, she held it up so it was level with her face "Hello. My name's Rose. That's a sort of plant. We might be related. I'm talking to a twig" she said talking to the plant pot before she seemed to realise what she was doing at lowered it to her lap, she didn't noticing when the ball hatched and another metal spider climbed out of it.

~*0*~

The little blue assistants could be seem as they wheeled the TARDIS away down the opposite corridor, which ran parallel to the one the Doctor and Astra were currently walking down.

"Oi, now, careful with that. Park it properly. No scratches" the Doctor said as he pointed his finger to the one closest to them, one of them hurried over and handed the Doctor a ticket that seemed to be in an alien language, until it touched the Doctors fingers then it seemed to shift slightly as it translated into 'Have A Nice Day' Both of them were so focused on the card that neither of them noticed when a pair of the metal spiders scuttled along the wall and ceiling behind them.

"That had something to do with the fact I can hear English even though they are all aliens doesn't it?" Astra asked, having been looking at the card when it was handed over.

The Doctor smiled at her with a nod of his head and said "Yup, that's the TARDIS translation circuit, it translates almost everything"

"Cool" Astra said making a mental note to test that later, she wondered what would happen if she could already speak the language.

~*0*~

The spider was scanning Rose's hand before it scuttled away just as the Doctor and Astra entered the room. The Doctor called out "Rose? Are you in there?" before he spotted her and sat down with Astra on the platform on the opposite side of the set of stairs "Aye, aye. What do you think, then?" he asked as he gestured around them.

"Great. Yeah, fine. Once you get past the slightly psychic paper. They're just so alien. The aliens are so alien. You look at 'em and they're alien" Rose said still sounding hysterical even if she wasn't outright panicking anymore.

"Good thing I didn't take you to the Deep South" the Doctor scoffed sarcastically with a raised eyebrow at her wondering what she actually thought they were going to see when she invited herself along.

"Where are you from?" Rose demanded of the Doctor not appreciating his condescension.

"All over the place" the Doctor shrugged.

"They all speak English" Rose asked confused.

"No, you just hear English. It's a gift of the TARDIS. The telepathic field, gets inside your brain and translates" the Doctor explained in more simple terms than he had used with Astra.

"It's inside my brain?" Rose said her voice rising again with her hysteria.

"Well, in a good way" the Doctor shrugged again not able to see what the big deal was.

"Your machine gets inside my head. It gets inside and it changes my mind, and you didn't even ask?" Rose cried out her voice getting higher with every word she spoke.

"It's not like it's a bad thing Rose, and it was a choice of going into the TARDIS or getting killed by the Mickey duplicate and then instead of getting blown up with the Consciousness. Stop being so dramatic you make it sound like it's the Doctor cut open your skull and played around with your brain" Astra snapped feeling a protectiveness for the Doctor rise up within her "All it did was alter the way you see and understand languages which is all kinds of amazing considering the time and patience that usually had to be put in to learning a new language never mind all of them, so get over it!"

"I didn't think about it like that" the Doctor said, only really getting how it could look after Astra's snap but he still did not like the way Rose was currently looking at Astra nor did he understand, still, what the big deal was.

"No, you were too busy thinking up cheap shots about the Deep South. Who are you, then, Doctor? What are you called? What sort of alien are you?" Rose questioned getting more defensive against the Doctor now as he spoke to deflect her from Astra.

"I'm just the Doctor" he said as if it explained everything, which as far as he was concerned was all she needed to know.

"From what planet?" Rose continued to demand relentlessly, not about to be thrown off that easily.

"Well, it's not as if you'll know where it is!" the Doctor said incredulous, what was the point of dredging it all up in order to tell her where he was from when she really would not be able to comprehend the importance of it all.

"Where are you from?" Rose continued regardless.

"What does it matter?" the Doctor demanded growing annoyed now

"Tell me who you are!" Rose shrieked

"This is who I am, right here, right now, all right? All that counts is here and now, and this is me" the Doctor said as his temper flared at the stupid human.

"Yeah, and I'm here too because you brought me here, so just tell me" Rose shrieked her voice reaching its highest pitch yet making the Doctor and Astra wince before an incredulous expression took over both their faces as it registered what she had just said, they were fairly certain she had invited herself along.

Just as Astra opened her mouth to comment she was interrupted by the computerised voice announcing "Earth Death in twenty minutes. Earth Death in twenty minutes" effectively breaking up the argument as the Doctor stood up and stalked over to the window and looked down at the Earth trying to pull his mind back to the present and away from his memories.

"All right. As my mate Shareen says, don't argue with the designated driver" Rose said seeming to realise that she had pushed a bit too far before coming to stand just behind the Doctor near the window, deciding to leave it for now and try again later, she took her phone out of her pocket as she says "Can't exactly call for a taxi. There's no signal. We're out of range. Just a bit" not noticing Astra walk up to the Doctors other side and take his hand in hers, squeezing it tightly in comfort having noticed the sadness in his eyes as he looked down at the Earth but not really seeing it, all the while his thoughts revolved around another planet he knew was currently burning because of him. This action managed to snap him out of the memories which earned her a small thankful smile.

"Tell you what" he said, releasing Astra's hand in order to take Rose's mobile from her. He took the back off her phone, pulled out the battery and replaced it with something from one of his many pockets.

"With a little bit of jiggery pokery" the Doctor started to explain.

"Is that a technical term, jiggery pokery?" Astra interrupted playfully, fully intending to keep it up until the Doctor felt better.

"Yeah, I came first in jiggery pokery. What about you?" he answered equally as playful, grateful for the distraction.

"No, I failed hullabaloo" she smirked making them both laugh slightly.

"Oh. There you go" he said as he finished and passed the phone back to Rose not noticing her pout at their interaction.

Rose, deciding to try and get the Doctors attention in a moment scrolled down the list of contacts in her phone until she landed on 'Mum' and called not really sure she believed that it would work "Hello?" Jackie could be heard from the other end of the line.

"Mum?" Rose said sounding completely surprised that it had worked.

"Oh, what is it?" Jackie answered as she emptied the washing machine "What's wrong? What have I done now? Oh, this red top's falling to bits, you should get your money back. Go on, There must be something, you never phone in the middle of the day" as she heard Rose laugh slightly over the phone she asked "What's so funny?"

"Nothing. You all right, though?" Rose replied, shaking her head slightly with disbelief

"Yeah. Why wouldn't I be?" Jackie replied curiously.

"What day is it?" Rose changed the subject.

"Wednesday, all day. You got a hangover? Oh, I tell you what. Put a quid in that Lottery syndicate. I'll pay you back later" Jackie said which Astra overheard and looked over, seeing Rose seemed to have missed the significance of that she turned back to the Doctor.

"Doctor, Jackie just mentioned the lottery syndicate, which was what Rose was delivering, the reason she was down in the basement in the shop" Astra explained to the Doctor in a whisper, looking concerned.

"Ah, Don't worry it just needs recalibrating. I will nick it off her later and sort it out before she does something stupid with it" the Doctor explained with a nod of his head.

Astra nodded back in understanding, neither was willing to risk the girl finding out, they dreaded to think what the girl would do if she realised that she was phoning her mother from before the shop blew up and she had started travelling with the Doctor.

"Yeah, er, I was just calling 'cos, I might be late home" they heard Rose carry on her conversation, thankfully not hearing there whispered discussion.

"Is there something wrong?" Jackie asked sounding concerned for her daughter.

"No. I'm fine. Top of the world" Rose finished joking to herself as she hung up the phone.

"Think that's amazing, you want to see the bill" the Doctor nodded to her as she turned toward them. He had just finished answering Astra's questions about the human race and whether they had survived on different planets and what biological changes may have occurred from their time until now.

"That was five billion years ago. So, she's dead now. Five billion years later, my mum's dead" Rose said sadly, looking up from her phone after observing there interaction for a moment and fishing for a little sympathy.

The Doctor didn't click on to what she was trying to do and answer with a roll of his eyes "Bundle of laughs, you are" before looking back down at the Earth.

"Oh, Hey, give me your phone and I'll give it a top up as well" The Doctor said turning to Astra and holding out his hand, he had been too distracted by their conversation to ask before.

"I left mine in the TARDIS, you can do it later" she explained with a shake of her head and a smile before adding on "Thank you though" making the Doctor smile in return.

Suddenly the whole space station shook violently, only for a moment, making the Doctor and Astra look around intrigued "That's not supposed to happen" he said sharing a look with Astra as both of them grinned excitedly, ready for the next adventure.

~*0*~

In his office the Steward was worried as he yelled at his computer "Well, what was it? I'm just getting green lights at this end" before putting on a calm voice and announcing over the speaker system "Honoured guests may be reassured that gravity pockets may cause slight turbulence, thanking you" before he turned back and started berating the controls "The whole place shook! I felt it. I've hosted all sorts of events on Platforms One, Three, Six and Fifteen and I've never felt the slightest tremor. I warn you, if this lot decide to sue. I'm going to scan the infrastructure"

Turning back to his computer to do just that, he did not notice the spider scuttle down the wall behind him he continued to speak "What's that? Control, I don't want to worry you, but I'm picking up readings. I have no idea. Well, they're small. The scan says they're metal. I don't know what they look like!" before he spotted one of the spiders on his desk "Although I imagine they might look rather like that. You're not on the guest list. How did you get on board?" he questioned it.

The spider ignored him and simply scuttled along his desk over to the keyboard and pushed one of the yellow buttons on it.

"No" the Steward breathed frightened just as the computer announced "Sun filter deactivated"

"No!" he shouted louder now starting to press buttons hoping to stop it.

"Sun filter descending" the Computerised voice stated as the room started to fill with white light from the ceiling downward as the filter on the window began to lower.

"No! Sun filter, up! No, no, no!" he shouted as he slammed his hands down on the keyboard in a futile attempt to save his own life.

"External temperature four thousand degrees" the Computer warned in a mechanically calm voice.

"Control, respond! Sun filter up! Argh!" the Steward begged before screaming as the spider escaped through a small vent to the side of the door.

~*0*~

Back on the main observation deck the Moxx of Balhoon was talking to the Face of Boe "Indubitably, this is the Bad Wolf scenario. I find the inherent laxity of the on-going multi verse" not noticing the Face of Boe's eyes looking away as the Doctor, Astra and Rose entered the room. Astra, looked back over her shoulder at the term bad wolf, she frowned as she tried to remember where she had heard that before, as she noticed the Face of Boe looking at her she smiled and waved slightly making the Face of Boe smile back at the girl.

"That wasn't a gravity pocket" the Doctor started pulling Astra's attention to him as he used the computer panel at the side of the door to try and find an explanation "I know gravity pockets and they don't feel like that. What do you think, Jabe?" he asked as he noticed the female tree approach them "Listened to the engines. They've pitched up about thirty Hertz. That dodgy or what?" he said as he searched for his answers.

"It's the sound of metal. It doesn't make any sense to me" she said confused.

The Doctor smiled at her slightly in understanding before he asked "Where's the engine room?"

"I don't know, but the maintenance duct is just behind our guest suite, I could show you, your friend and your wife" Jabe said gesturing to Rose questioningly, not noticing the Doctor seemed to have more fond feelings toward Astra.

"She's not my wife" the Doctor answered grimacing at the very idea of having to put up with the girl for longer than absolutely necessary.

"Partner?"

"No"

"Concubine?"

"Nope"

"Prostitute?" Jabe said raising her eyebrow slightly as Astra tried to cover a snort behind her hand making the Doctor grin.

"Whatever I am, it must be invisible. Do you mind?" Rose spat offended before catching sight of Cassandra "Tell you what, you two go and pollinate. I'm going to catch up with family. Quick word with Michael Jackson" she says as she headed off, passing the Doctors arm as she passed and walking toward Cassandra.

"Don't start a fight" he warned her sternly before he offered both Jabe and Astra an arm.

With Jabe on his left and Astra on his right he grinned "Off we go then" as he let Jabe lead the way to the engine room.

They walked out just as the Computer announced "Earth Death in fifteen minutes. Earth Death in fifteen minutes."

~*0*~

In the maintenance duct a multitude of spiders scuttle out of sight behind the swags of wiring and piping just as the Doctor, Astra and Jabe turn the corner into view. "Who's in charge of Platform One? Is there a Captain or what?" the Doctor questioned Jabe, squeezing through the duct not letting go of Astra's hand as they walked along.

"There's just the Steward and the staff. All the rest is controlled by the metal mind" Jabe explained.

"You mean the computer? But who controls that?" the Doctor questioned more to himself than anyone else.

"The Corporation. They move Platform One from one artistic event to another" Jabe answered anyway.

"But there's no one from the Corporation on board" Astra checked, that was suspiciously convenient if this turned out to be sabotage.

"They're not needed. This facility is purely automatic. It's the height of the Alpha class. Nothing can go wrong" Jabe said trying to reassure the kind girl.

"Unsinkable?" the Doctor mumbled, his thoughts drifting

"If you like. The nautical metaphor is appropriate" Jabe shrugged.

"Right, you're telling me. I was on board another ship once. They said that was unsinkable. I ended up clinging to an iceberg. It wasn't half cold" he said distracted, off in his own little world "So, what you're saying is, if we get in trouble there's no one to help us out?" the Doctor clarified as he snapped out of his thoughts.

"I'm afraid not" Jabe trailed off seeming to realise how much danger they could be in if anything went wrong.

The Doctor smiled and said "Fantastic"

"I don't understand. In what way is that fantastic?" Jabe said looking from Astra who is shaking her head at the Doctor who was grinning at her.

~*0*~

Back in the Observation gallery Cassandra was in the middle of talking to Rose "Soon, the sun will blossom into a red giant, and my home will die. That's where I used to live, when I was a little boy, down there. Mummy and Daddy had a little house built into the side of the Los Angeles Crevice. I'd have such fun."

"What happened to everyone else? The human race, where did it go?" Rose asked confused about everything else too much to even register the fact someone who identified as a woman called herself a little boy.

"They say mankind has touched every star in the sky" Cassandra scoffed, sounding completely disgusted with the idea.

"So, you're not the last human" Rose stated nodding her head.

"I am the last pure human. The others mingled" Cassandra answered pulling her face into a look of disgust, or as much as a piece of skin can look disgusted "Oh, they call themselves New humans and Proto-humans and Digi-humans, even 'Humanish, but you know what I call them? Mongrels." she sneered.

"Right. And you stayed behind" Rose went on ignoring the last part of that sentence.

"I kept myself pure" she said smugly.

"How many operations have you had?" Rose said her voice layered with condescension.

"Seven hundred and eight. Next week, it's seven hundred and nine. I'm having my blood bleached. Is that why you wanted a word? You could be flatter, Rose. You've got a little bit of a chin poking out" Cassandra answered not even noticing her tone.

"I'd rather die" Rose said adamantly, sure she had considered some plastic surgery but not to this extreme.

"Honestly, it doesn't hurt" Cassandra comforts trying to be soothing.

"No, I mean it. I would rather die. It's better to die than live like you, a bitchy trampoline" Rose scoffed disgusted with the idea.

"Oh, well. What do you know" Cassandra asked with a roll of her eyes.

"I was born on that planet, and so was my mum, and so was my dad, and that makes me officially the last human being in this room, 'cos you're not human. You've had it all nipped and tucked and flattened till there's nothing left. Anything human got chucked in the bin. You're just skin, Cassandra. Lipstick and skin. Nice talking" Roses shouted before she turned and stormed off, leaving the room, not noticing the Adherents as they watched her exit.

~*0*~

As they squeezed themselves through the maintenance duct, the Doctor, not letting go of Astra's hand decided he wanted to know Jabe reasons for being there "So tell me, Jabe, what's a tree like you doing in a place like this?" he asked her over his shoulder.

"Respect for the Earth" she said as she shrugged her shoulders slightly.

"Oh, come on. Everyone on this platform's worth zillions" the Doctor said raising his eyebrow at her.

"Well, perhaps it's a case of having to be seen at the right occasions" Jabe acquiesced gracefully.

"In case your share prices drop? I know you lot. You've got massive forests everywhere, roots everywhere, and there's always money in land" the Doctor continued.

"All the same, we respect the Earth as family. So many species evolved from that planet. Mankind is only one. I'm another. My ancestors were transplanted from the planet down below, and I'm a direct descendant of the tropical rainforest" Jabe said by way of explanation.

"Now that is kind of strange to think about" Astra mumbled low enough that only the Doctor could hear her.

"Excuse me" the Doctor interrupted with a smirk as he saw the intrigue spark in Astra's eyes, as he stopped in order to scan a door panel, some writing popped up on the screen reading 'Welcome to Platform One. Guide of Platform One Do You Need Assistance.' The Doctor soniced the keypad labelled Maintenance log in, only to get denied any access.

"And what about your ancestry, Doctor? Perhaps you could tell a story or two. Perhaps a man only enjoys trouble when there's nothing else left. I scanned you earlier. The metal machine had trouble identifying your species. It refused to admit your existence. And even when it named you, I wouldn't believe it. But it was right. I know where you're from. Forgive me for intruding, but it's remarkable that you even exist. I just wanted to say how sorry I am" Jabe said her voice sympathetic.

Astra, seeing the tears that filled his eyes at her words leant her head against his shoulder and put her arm around his waist, giving him as much of a hug as she could while he worked in order to give him some comfort and remind him that she was there. He returned the gesture by giving her arm a squeeze in thanks not noticing a tear escape his eye until she wiped it away for him, before they both got distracted by the door sliding open. He straightened up and put his arm around Astra's shoulder while she kept an arm around his waist in comfort and led her off through the door not noticing Jabe giving them a curious look as she followed behind them.

~*0*~

Once they entered the engine room they looked around seeing a catwalk that ran straight through the centre of the room cut off at several intervals by a trio of large fans with a sheer drop on either side that seems to drop to the base of the station.

"Is it me, or is it a bit nippy?" the Doctor questioned sarcastically as he and Astra looked at the fans in curiosity.

~*0*~

After storming away from Cassandra, Rose went for a walk to calm herself down; turning down a side corridor she decided to go looking for the Doctor. However before she could make it that far she was met by the Adherents, as she walked down a corridor flashed them a quick smile, what she wasn't expecting was for one of them lift its clawed arm and hit her around the head knocking her unconscious then dragging her away by one of her legs.

~*0*~

"Fair dos, though, that's a great bit of air conditioning. Sort of nice and old fashioned. Bet they call it retro" the Doctor said as he looked around at the fans before he headed over to the panel and scanned it with his sonic.

"Gotcha" he said as he pulled off the panel revealing the circuits inside before he jumped abruptly and defensively pulled Astra slightly behind him as one of the metal spiders scuttled out and then up the wall onto one of the pipes high up.

"What the hell's that?" the Doctor and Astra asked at exactly the same time as Astra gripped the Doctors arm.

"Is it part of the retro?" Jabe questioned innocently.

"I don't think so. Hold on" he said as he pointed his sonic screwdriver at it trying to shut it off so he could have a proper look at it, only to be upstaged when Jabe lassoed it.

"Hey, Cool, loving the liana" Astra said, a very impressed look on his face.

"Why, thank you. We're not supposed to show them in public" Jabe said pleased with the reaction, knowing not many people are that open minded to things that were considered different.

"Don't worry, we won't tell anybody. Now then, who's been bringing their pets on board?" the Doctor said shooting her an impressed look before he soniced the spider.

"What does it do?" Jabe asked bringing them back on point.

"Sabotage" the Doctor said right before the computerised voice over head announced "Earth Death in ten minutes" echoing down the chamber.

"And the temperature's about to rocket. Come on" the Doctor commented before grabbing Astra's hand and leading them both back through the door, Jabe following behind them. The computerised voice repeating "Earth Death in ten minutes" behind them.

~*0*~

"The planet's end. Come gather, come gather. Bid farewell to the cradle of civilisation. Let us mourn her with a traditional ballad" Cassandra called the attention of everyone in the room to her as the 50's jukebox switches discs and starts playing Britney Spears Toxic.

~*0*~

Outside the Steward's office the corridor was filled up with smoke coming from inside the room through the gaps in the door frame and the glare of the sun was coming through a small glass panel in the door. As they approach they saw all the little assistants who had gathered around the door looking around not knowing what to do or how to help.

"Hold on. Get back" the Doctor said making his way through them and soniced a small panel next to the door.

The Computer announced "Sun filter rising. Sun filter rising" and the glare receded as the Doctor stood back up.

"Is the Steward in there?!" Astra asked from behind him concerned while Jabe tried and failed to comfort the little assistants.

He turned to her and quickly put his arm around her, holding her close as he stroked her arm comfortingly as he told her regretfully "You can smell him" he sighed turned back to the panel to finish his work, not knowing why he was so comfortable around her or why he wished to comfort her and didn't like her being upset but brushed it off as something to think on more later, he soniced the panel until a beep was heard "Hold on, there's another sun filter programmed to descend" he told everyone before he ran off trusting them to take care of the assistants while he dealt with whatever else was currently happening.

~*0*~

In the room they had originally landed in Rose had just starting to stir awake from her place on the floor at the bottom of the steps. Overhead the computerised voice could be heard announcing "Sun filter descending. Sun filter descending. Sun filter descending" Rose jolted fully awake as the deadly glare began to fill the room.

She threw herself up off the floor and up the stairs to the door, trying to pull it open before realising she couldn't; she started to hammer on it and shouting "Let me out! Let me out, Please Please Please let me out!" as she prayed someone would hear her.

"Sun filter descending"

~*0*~

The Doctor ran to room where he had originally parked the TARDIS and hurried over to the door panel and using his sonic manipulated the system to raise the sun filter, as the computer announced "Sun filter descending"

He continued working the door panel as he called through the door "Anyone in there?" hoping not to get an answer, only he wasn't that lucky as he heard Rose shouting from behind the door not a moment later "Let me out!

"Oh, well, it would be you" the Doctor sneered exasperated as he carried on fighting with the system to control the door.

Rose continued to bang on the door as she screamed at him "Open the door!"

"Hold on. Give us two ticks" the Doctor remarked casually as he continued to try and find the right frequency.

"Sun filter rising. Sun filter rising" the computerised voice announced just as the bright rays of the sun reach the top of the door, Rose let out a sigh of relief as she slumped against the door "Sun filter rising. Sun filter rising"

"Sun filter descending" the computer announced as the glare started to fill the room again.

"Just what we need." the Doctor groaned as he went back to work on the door panel "The computer's getting clever."

"Stop mucking about!" Rose shrieked hysterically.

"I'm not mucking about. It's fighting back" the Doctor said slightly offended at the idea he would mess around at a time like this before he brushed it off as he didn't really care what she thought of him.

"Open the door!" Rose continued to shriek as she banged on the door as if that would cause it to suddenly open.

"I know!" the Doctor shouted back with a roll of his eyes.

Inside the room Rose ran down to the bottom of the steps and crouched near the platform as far away from the glare as it moved down the door.

"The locks melted!" she shouted as she saw over half the door had burnt shut.

The Computer continued "Sun filter descending. Sun filter Descending" just as it was about to reach the bottom of the door the panel sparked and the computer started to announce "Sun filter rising. Sun filter rising"

Rose got up relieved and ran back up to the door stopping short at the sight of the entire wall, door included all burnt.

"The whole things jammed. I can't open the doors. Stay there! Don't move!" the Doctor said before he turned and ran off back to the main room.

"Where am I going to go, Ipswich?" Rose shouted sarcastically her voice still slightly high.

"Earth Death in five minutes" the computer announced.

~*0*~

Back in the main observation room Astra is stood by Jabe holding the metal spider so that Jabe could scan it with her device, it seemed she got her answer as she turned to the room and announced "The metal machine confirms. The spider devices have infiltrated the whole of Platform One"

Many of them gasped, startled by that announcement before Cassandra voice cut over the din "How's that possible? Our private rooms are protected by a code wall. Moisturise me, moisturise me"

"Summon the Steward" the Moxx said just as the Doctor entered the room, he walked up to Astra and took the spider from her.

"I'm afraid the Steward is dead" Jabe said softly.

"Who killed him?" Moxx questioned shocked making the Doctor look over quickly before he turned back to the spider and soniced it, turning it back on and re-programming it.

"This whole event was sponsored by the Face of Boe. He invited us. Talk to the Face. Talk to the Face" Cassandra hissed with accusation.

"Easy way of finding out. Someone bought their little pet on board. Let's send him back to master" the Doctor said as he put down the spider and watched as it scuttled away. It scuttled over in Cassandra's direction before it seemed to hesitate as Cassandra looked slightly shifty before it headed off in a different direction right over to the Adherents.

"The Adherents of the Repeated Mean. J'accuse!" Cassandra gasped dramatically.

"That's all very well, and really kind of obvious, but if you stop and think about it" the Doctor interrupted heading over to the Adherents.

Their leader raised its arm in an attempt to hit him, only for the Doctor to grab its wrist and give a sharp tug; he pulled its arm up the elbow right off and out of its sleeve.

"A Repeated Meme is just an idea. And that's all they are, an idea" he said as he pulled one of the wires that was dangling from the arm, and all the Adherents collapsed "Remote controlled Droids. Nice little cover for the real troublemaker. Go on, Jimbo. Go home" he continued as he used his foot to nudge the spider away a little.

The spider scuttled away before stumbling to a stop in front of Cassandra who was already looking directly at him not even glancing down to see the spider, she sneered "I bet you were the school swot and never got kissed. At arms!" she ordered.

Her attendants raise their spray guns threateningly at the Doctor and Astra, who had moved to stand with the Doctor.

"What are you going to do, moisturise me?" the Doctor mock gasped as he grabbed his chest dramatically making Astra snicker at him.

"With acid" Cassandra said mock casually in response "Oh, you're too late, anyway. My spiders have control of the mainframe. Oh, you all carried them as gifts; tax free, past every code wall. I'm not just as pretty face"

"Sabotaging a ship while you're still inside it? What kind of plan is that?!" Astra snarled.

"I'd hoped to manufacture a hostage situation with myself as one of the victims. The compensation would have been enormous" Cassandra dreamily trailed off.

"Five billion years and it still comes down to money" the Doctor said disgusted.

"Do you think it's cheap, looking like this? Flatness costs a fortune. I am the last human, Doctor. Me. Not that freaky little kid of yours" Cassandra demanded.

"Arrest her, the infidel" Moxx demanded.

"Oh, shut it, pixie." she hissed before calmly saying, "I've still got my final option"

"Earth Death in three minutes" the computer announced although none of them where paying attention.

"And here it comes. You're just as useful dead, all of you. I have shares in your rival companies and they'll triple in price as soon as you're dead. My spiders are primed and ready to destroy the safety systems. How did that old Earth song go? Burn, baby, burn" she said in a vicious tone.

"Then you'll burn with us" Jabe sneered.

"Oh, I'm so sorry. I know the use of teleportation is strictly forbidden, but I'm such a naughty thing." she said in a mock apologetic tone before she ordered "Spiders, activate"

They heard a series of explosions throughout the entire of Platform One as the entire thing shook from the reverberations.

"Force fields gone with the planet about to explode. At least it'll be quick. Just like my fifth husband. Oh, shame on me" she giggled mockingly.

"Safety systems failing" the computer announced calmly

"Bye, bye, darlings. Bye, bye, my darlings." Cassandra said as she and her attendants teleported out.

"Heat levels rising" the computer warned.

"Reset the computer" Moxx said as he tried to help think of an idea.

"Only the Steward would know how" Jabe said only to be interrupted by the Doctor as he said "No. We can do it by hand. There must be a system restore switch" he said as he grabbed Astra's hand and led her away before calling back to Jabe and everyone else "Jabe, come on. You lot, just chill"

~*0*~

The computer announced "Earth Death in two minutes. Earth Death in two minutes" just as they entered the maintenance duct again. This time at a run, as they headed back to the engine room.

"Heat levels critical" the computer announced "Heat levels critical"

They entered the room and the Doctor looked around before he spotted the switch on the other side of the razor sharp fans that were spinning at hundreds of miles per hour "Oh. And guess where the switch is"

The Doctor pulled down a breaker lever and the fans slowed a little, but as soon he let go the lever returned to its original position and the fans went back to full speed.

"External temperature five thousand degrees" the Computer announced as Astra took off her jacket and wrapped it around her hands for a bit of extra protection before she grabbed the breaker lever and held it down. The fans slowed down making the Doctor look back at her.

"You can't. The heat's going to vent through this place." the Doctor said, not wanting her to be hurt.

"I know" Astra answered panting slightly as the lever resisted her efforts to hold it down.

"Astra, it'll burn through that" he argued gesturing to the fabric of her cardigan wrapped around her hands "in no time, you're going to burn"

"Then stop wasting time, Time Lord" Jabe interrupted knowing he needed to hurry up, what the girl was determined to do in order to save everyone's lives, she would get burnt either way but the quicker he could get it done the quicker she'd be able to let go.

"Heat levels rising. Heat levels rising" the Computer announced, as the Doctor looked up at the ceiling, he looked over at Astra and shot her a comforting look making her smile as she nodded back at him in reassurance before he turned toward the fans. He just managed to overhear Astra tell Jabe to leave the room if the heat got too much for her

~*0*~

"Heat levels hazardous" the computer announced as the observation window began to crack and streaks of pure heat burn through the room.

"We're going to die!" Moxx yelled just managing to dodge the ray that would have hit him if he hadn't moved as everyone else began to panic as they tried to find some form of cover to buy them even a little more time.

~*0*~

"Heat levels hazardous" was heard throughout the engine room just as the Doctor made it past the first fan. Astra braced herself as she felt the warmth starting to burn through the thin material of her jacket.

~*0*~

In the room with Rose she looked up as the computer announced "Shields malfunction. Shields malfunction. Shields malfunction." she moved sideways just in time to dodge as the window crack and streaks of deadly glare from the sun shot through the room.

~*0*~

"Heat levels critical. Heat levels critical" the computer announced, causing the Doctor to look back at Astra as sweat ran down her face and she seem to be gritting her teeth against the heat. He saw her talk to Jabe; she seemed to be sending her out of the room as she started to struggle to stay inside with the heat building up.

When the Doctor noticed this he started to try and finish this as quickly as he could, he turned then ran past the second fan to the third.

A scream escaped Astra before she could stifle it, tears started to stream down her face, as the heat finally succeeded in burning through her jacket and started to burn her hands. She used all her weight to hold down the lever determined not to let go until the Doctor could reach the switch.

The computer announced "Planet explodes in ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four..."

The Doctor managed to make it past the last fan and dashed for the reset breaker pulling it down quickly as he could before shouting "Raise shields!" up to the ceiling then turning back to Astra and shouting "LET GO!" he breathed a sigh of relief as he saw her release the lever and sink to her knees, clutching her hands to her chest to try and protect them from further damage.

~*0*~

A force field enveloped Platform One as the Earth started to almost boil from the heat and then exploded. The computer seemed to ignore what was happening to the Earth as it announced on repeat "Exo-glass repair. Exo-glass repair. Exo-glass repair."

Rose opened her eyes to see the cracks in the window mend themselves and vanish all the cracks that had appeared, she saw the fractured remains of Earth floating by the window as it healed but found she didn't really care.

~*0*~

In the engine rooms, the fans started to slow to a stop making it easy for the Doctor to run back through them easily in order to reach Astra's side, where she had managed to drag herself to near the door, keeping herself pressed into the wall clutching her hands to her chest as she continued to gasp with the pain and tried to stop her tears. He moved quickly over to her and carefully tried to uncurl her arms away from her body so he could examine the damage done to her hands more closely, trying not to move them too much and failing as she hissed at the pain the movement caused.

He looked up at her tear streaked face, guilt stirred within him as he pulled out two handkerchiefs, wrapping them carefully around her hands to cover them until he could get her back to the TARDIS where he had something to help them heal properly. He wiped her tears off her cheeks with the edge of his jumper as he stood her up, an arm wrapped around her shoulders for support as he led her out of the room. Finding Jabe just outside the door, she quickly made her way to the girls other side to help support her as the Doctor led them both back to the main room.

~*0*~

After the door repaired itself Rose left the room and ran back to the main room. She entered, looking around for the Doctor, she saw some people have a few minor burns but nothing too serious. The Doctor stormed into the room just after her with his arm still around Astra with Jabe helping as he led her over to the chair near Jabe's tree companion where they could keep an eye on her for him.

The Face of Boe noticed Astra clutching her hands close and projected telepathically to her out of concern "What happened? Are you well?"

Astra jumped slightly, surprised to hear a voice in her head but thought back at him hoping it would work "fine... hands burnt... helping... Doctor"

The Face of Boe nodded back at her clearly relieved she was ok before he turned his focus back to the Doctor.

"You all right?" Rose asked not even bothering to look at Astra.

"Yeah, I'm fine. I'm full of ideas, I'm bristling with them" the Doctor snarled as he stalked past her not even noticing who had spoken "Idea number one, teleportation through five thousand degrees needs some kind of feed. Idea number two, this feed must be hidden nearby" He reached out and grabbed the alleged ostrich egg that Cassandra had brought on board with her and smashed it open to reveal a small device hidden inside.

"Idea number three, if you're as clever as me, then a teleportation feed can be reversed" he said as he soniced the device and reversed the feed, beaming Cassandra back to the platform, not that she noticed, at first, as she continued her conversation "Oh, you should have seen their little alien faces" As she finally noticed what room she was in and looked around at all the unimpressed faces before landing on a furious Doctor "Oh" she said more than a little shocked.

"The last human" the Doctor sneered at her.

"So, you passed my little test. Bravo. This makes you eligible to join, er, the Human Club" Cassandra tried to wave the entire situation off.

"People have died, Cassandra. You have murdered them" the Doctor said angrily.

"It depends on your definition of people, and that's enough of a technicality to keep your lawyers dizzy for centuries. Take me to court, then, Doctor, and watch me smile and cry and flutter" Cassandra brags not noticing her skin start to become tight as it fights to stay stretched in its metal frame.

"And creak?" the Doctor snarled, his voice full of smug satisfaction.

"And what?" she replied confused.

"Creak. You're creaking" he said sounding completely satisfied.

"What? Ah! I'm drying out! Oh, sweet heavens. Moisturise me, moisturise me! Where are my surgeons? My lovely boys! It's too hot!" Cassandra started to shriek loudly in a panic.

"You raised the temperature" the Doctor smirked, mocking her.

"Have pity! Moisturise me! Oh, oh, Doctor. I'm sorry. I'll do anything" Cassandra begged

"Help her" Rose demanded softly, not wanting to see her die even if she was a human trampoline, from beside him only for the Doctor to look over at Astra who had stood up and walked up beside him, knowing but not understanding why he'd only stop if she asked him too.

"Everything has its time and course to run, in the end everything dies" she commented softly.

"I'm too young!" Cassandra screamed as her eyes went red and blood shot and her skin shrank even more before...

 **SPLAT!**

~*0*~

"Shuttles four and six departing. This unit now closing down for maintenance" the computer announced as the space pod departed with the passengers.

Back in the observation gallery the Doctor approached Astra as she looked out at the rocks and dust that were once the Earth as they float past the red giant Sun.

"The end of the Earth. It's gone. No one saw it go. All those years, all that history, and no one was even looking. It's just gone." Astra said in a soft sad voice "All that life, all that past, all that evolution and all those wonderful creations just... gone... and no one was watching, no one... we were just too busy trying to save ourselves" she finished with a shake of her head as she looked down sadly.

"Come with me" he said putting a sympathetic arm around her shoulder as he led her back to the TARDIS where Rose was waiting for them, being careful of her hands.

~*0*~

They step out of the TARDIS looking around at the 20th century Earth hearing the sounds of a baby's cry, and a man laugh, people laughing and joking as they roam around the shops in their daily lives. The Doctor, Astra and Rose stood in the middle of high street looking round at all the people going about their lives, relieved to see the place so full of life after they saw it all die.

"You think it'll last forever, people and cars and concrete, but it won't. One day it's all gone. Even the sky" he took a deep breath before he continued "My planet's gone. It's dead. It burned like the Earth. It's just rocks and dust before it's time" the Doctor explained to Astra, figuring she deserved some kind of explanation for Jabe's reaction to him, after everything she did to help save the day.

"What happened?" Rose butted in, thinking he was finally answering her questions.

"There was a war and we lost" the Doctor explained simply.

"A war with who?" Rose asked rudely only to be ignored.

What about your people? What happened to all of them? Astra asked softly after a moment.

"I'm a Time Lord. I'm the last of the Time Lords. They're all gone. I'm the only survivor. I'm left travelling on my own 'cos there's no one else" the Doctor sighed sadly thinking about his lost people, mainly one person in particular hoping she would be proud of him for keeping his last promise to her.

"There's me" Astra said quietly taking his hand as she saw the sad look in his eyes, ignoring the pain this caused her.

"You've seen how dangerous it is. Do you want to go home?" he asked, looking down at Astra, hoping she wouldn't but knowing he needed to make the offer.

"No... No there is far too much out there for me to see and learn about, and it wasn't all bad y'know" Astra cheered, smiling up at him "All those Aliens, all those places, I want to see more" she finished with a smile and a shake of her head.

"Yeah... Yeah" the Doctor laughed slightly in relief as he pulled her into a hug and rested his head on top of before turning and directing her back to the TARDIS to get her hands fixed up, ignoring Rose as she mentioned something about chips.

 **AN: I hope you like it! Please let me know what you think and I shall see you next time, BlackRoseBooks xx**


End file.
